Gracepunk
by Qille
Summary: Crossover with the book Graceling. All of the 9 characters are Graced, and everywhere they turn, somebody is hunting them. But it's very hard to run when the bad guys are Graced too...
1. Waking Up

_A/N: Okay, this is a crossover between the movie 9 and the book Graceling. Both are awesome, but this story is more 9 than Graceling. It's basically humanized 9 where people have Graces (which are like special talents or powers for those who don't know). So... enjoy! =D_

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**Gracepunk**

He slowly blinked his eyes open. He was laying on a slightly creaky bed in a dark, cold hospital room. He lay studying the crumbing ceiling for a moment before slowly looking around. The gray room only had one window and a door. The shutters on the window were still intact, unlike the door, which simply hung off of it's hinges.

He cautiously propped himself up on his elbows. Looking down, he saw that he was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. His body was dangerously thin, and he could easily count each rib. There was a fresh scar on the center of his chest, and another identical scar a few inches lower.

Looking around, he saw a pile of clothes sitting on a table right next to the bed. Slowly sitting all the way up, he reached over and grabbed the pair of jeans sitting on top of the pile. He managed to get the pants on without standing up, and right after he found a belt in the pile, he noticed something.

There was something hanging around his neck. He took the object in his hand and looked at it. The object was small and circular, and it had strange symbols carved into it. It was hanging on a chain around his neck. He started to remove the chain to get a better look at the pendant, but as soon as he did, he immediately felt nauseous and lightheaded. He dropped the chain back around his neck, and the dizziness disappeared.

_Note to self,_ he thought. _Don't take the necklace off..._

He grabbed a plain white t-shirt and slipped it on, making sure the necklace was underneath. Next came a pair of socks, and finally a brown jacket. When he picked up the jacket, the first thing he noticed was the abnormally large zipper on the front of the jacket. The second thing he noticed was the large number _9_ printed on the back. He stared at it for a minute before shrugging and putting on the jacket. He would find out what the number meant later.

Looking down beside the bed he was sitting in, he saw a pair of army boots. When he reached down and grabbed them, he noticed a small hand-held mirror sitting on the bedside table. After putting on the boots, he reached over and grabbed the mirror.

Looking in the mirror, he saw that he still looked about the same. His hair was still brown, and he looked like he needed a haircut. He still had an olive skin tone. His right eye was still bright green. His left eye was still bright orange. He looked down at his hand and flicked his wrist experimentally. A small fireball appeared in the air above his hand.

Yep. He could still light fires with his mind.

He lowered his hand and the fire went out. That was when the wind outside started blowing, causing the shutters to start creaking. He looked over at the window. Why hadn't he heard anything outside. In fact, the entire building seemed quiet.

_Weird... I thought hospitals were a lot louder..._

Slowly, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and planted his feet firmly on the floor. He shakily stood up, using the bed as support. He nearly collapsed a few times, shocked at how weak his legs were. He felt like this was his first time walking in months!

_How did I get here anyways...?_ he wondered as he stood. He tried to think back, but he had no memory of ever coming to a hospital. In fact, the last thing he remembered was helping someone with something. He couldn't remember _who_ he was helping, or what he was doing though...

After a few minutes, he finally managed to stand on his own two legs. Smiling at his small success, he looked around the room, now able to see what he hadn't seen from his sitting position.

That was when he saw the body. It shocked him so much that he cried out and stumbled backwards. He would have fallen over if not for the wall right behind him.

From his vantage point, he could see that the body was still fresh. The man had only been dead for a few days, it seemed. The body had yet to start rotting. The man had been old, which he could tell from the white hair. Judging by his white coat, he was a doctor.

Slowly, he took a step towards the body. He couldn't see the man's face because he was lying face-down, but he could see something in the man's hand. It looked like a small wooden box. Cautiously walking forward, he crouched down and took a close look at the box. There was a tag on the side the the number _9_ written on it. Slowly, he slid the box from the stiff gray hand, shuddering as he did so. Once the box was in his possession, he backed up against the wall. He tried to open it, but it appeared to be locked. It had a key hole, but couldn't find the key anywhere.

Sighing, he looked around. Under the bed was a shoulder bag, so he reached under and grabbed it, putting the small box in. He slung the bag over his shoulder and shakily stood back up.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew the shutters wide open. He slowly walked over to the window, careful to stay as far from the body as possible. When he reached the window, he looked out, shocked to find what looked to be the ruins of an old city. Nothing was moving, and most of the buildings were totaled. It was almost as if a bomb had gone off right in the center of the city...

That was when something caught his eye. Down on the rubble-filled streets below, he saw two figures walking down the road. He opened his mouth to call out, but at the last second, he decided against it. It just felt too ominous to speak too loud when it was so quiet. Instead, he turned and hurriedly ran through the door, carefully making his way down the stairs.

As he ran through the old building, he saw that it _had_ been a hospital, but it was now only rubble. The room that he had woken in was the only one still intact. When he reached the door that lead to the outside world, however, he stopped and something fell out of his pocket. It looked like a folded piece of paper. He bent down and picked it up before the wind did, but when he unfolded it and looked at it, he nearly dropped it again.

It was a picture of him, his parents, and his little sister. The picture must have been taken before his eyes had set, because they were bright blue in the picture. His sister had the same color eyes as he did before they set; now only her left eye was blue. Her right eye had been purple.

Suddenly, the memory hit him out of nowhere. The force of the memory was so strong that he stumbled backwards a bit and had to sit down. Now he remembered where his family was, and what he had been doing before he got here. He had been helping his sister pack her bags. And his family...

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. _Get a grip, Andrew!_

Slowly, he stood back up and put the picture in his bag, right next to the locked box. He ran out onto the street, nearly tripping over the rubble. Looking towards the center of the city, he saw only destruction. Beyond that, however, he could see smoke rising in the far distance. Turning towards the outskirts of the city, he caught a glimpse of the two figures before they disappeared. They were heading towards what looked like a forest near the edge of the blast zone. Without hesitation, he took off after them.

The first few minutes of running were difficult. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but it must have been long enough to deteriorate the muscles in his legs. However, after a few more minutes, he began to pick up speed as the forgotten practice of running came back to him. He made it to the forest withing minutes.

The forest was a lot darker than it should have been. He slowed to a walk once he was under the tree canopy; the only sounds were the rustling of the trees and the occasional snapping twig. He had no idea where those other two people had gone, and he was now hopelessly lost. Still, he walked on.

After walking for what seemed like hours, he finally decided to stop. He felt stupid for trying to follow people that he didn't even know, and he felt even _more_ stupid when he realized how lost he was. Sighing, he turned around...

...and came face to face with someone. He let out a sharp cry and stumbled backwards. The man standing over him was at least six feet tall. He was wearing a full body black leather jumpsuit and had a piece of white headgear covering the majority of his face, except his eyes and mouth. The man's right eye was white. His left eye was bright red. An evil smile crept onto his face.

"Well who are you?" the man hissed menacingly.

He gulped and started to scramble backwards, unable to speak. He noticed a large array of knives hanging from the man's belt.

"Not talking, huh?" laughed the man. "Well... I can fix that..." He reached for one of his knives.

Suddenly, something flew through the air, right at the man. Instead of ducking, he _jumped_ at least ten feet in the air to avoid the projectile. He landed on his feet without a sound.

"WHO SHOT THAT!" he shouted into the darkening forest. The only answer was the rustle of the trees. Suddenly, another projectile came from the same direction. Instead of jumping, he simply turned his shoulder so that the arrow flew right past him. As he turned, he flung one of his knives into the forest. A sharp cry of pain came from the general direction of the shooter.

The man started to move towards the sound of the scream, but someone tackled him to the ground. He didn't stay down for long. He quickly grabbed his attacker by the throat and shoved him up against a tree. The figure who had ambushed the man pulled a spear out of nowhere and hit the man in the head with it. The head gear was enough to protect the man from having his head sliced open, but it was still enough to disorient him for a moment. He shook his head and flung the figure across the clearing. He landed right near Andrew, who was still on the ground.

"Enough of this..." growled the tall man. He had another knife in his hand, and it was pointed right at Andrew. "My Boss told me I'm not supposed to kill any Gracelings I find, but for you and your little friends, I think I can make an exception..."

"No!" came a voice from the trees. Whoever they were, they were too far away to help.

The man brought down the knife, and Andrew did the only thing he could think of. He raised his own hands and unleashed his Grace.

Two enormous fireballs shot out of his hands and hit the man square in the face. He screamed and staggered backwards, covering his face with his hands. Moments later, he disappeared into the forest, his screams fading into the distance.

Andrew tried to pull the fire back to avoid setting the forest on fire, but in his panicked state of mind, he didn't pull it back quite right. A loud _snap_ cut through the air, and the fire rebounded right back at him! He quickly jerked his upper body to the right, and the returning fireball missed his face. However, it didn't miss his shoulder. He let out a blood-curling scream as the fire smashed into his shoulder. It went out immediately, but the damage had already been done.

Looking to his left, he saw that the shoulder of his jacket had been completely burnt away. Beneath the jacket and his shirt, he saw that the fire had burnt his flesh all the way down to the bone, and the wound, surrounded all around by third degree burns, was bleeding profusely.

He looked up to see two figures standing over him. Then he blacked out.

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_A/N: Yeah, I know it's short, but the first chapter is usually always short! Hope this chapter wasn't too confusing. This is going to be slightly cannon to the 9 movie, but with a bunch of differences. So... yeah. The next chapter will have more characters in it. So... see ya later!_


	2. Sanctuary

_A/N: Okay guys, thank you so much for your support here! And I promise to update Fever next. But you gotta write when inspiration comes, so... here I am! And now... it's time to meet the OTHER Gracepunks! Muahahahahahaha! Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention... **NOT A SLASH!** Enjoy._

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**Gracepunk**

Andrew slowly blinked his eyes open. He saw that he was no longer in the dark forest; instead, he was lying in a small, warm room that was lit only by a large multitude of flickering Christmas lights. The bed he was lying on felt similar to the one he had woken up in. His left arm still felt like it was burning.

Suddenly, someone leaned over him into his field of vision. Shocked, Andrew lashed out with his good arm and rolled to his right, where he ended up falling off the bed. When he fell, his right arm hit something, and he felt blood start to drip down his arm. He landed on his knees with no strength to stand back up, using only his bleeding right arm to stay off the ground.

He felt hands on his back. "It's okay," said a calm voice behind him. "I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe now."

Andrew felt himself being lifted back up onto the bed. Once back up, he managed to get himself into a sitting position by leaning against the wall. Only then was he able to get a good look at the person who had helped him.

Standing in front of him was a boy about his age, maybe a bit older. The boy had red hair, and his right eye was forest green. Andrew couldn't tell if he was Graced or not, because his left eye was missing, and a leather eye patch had taken it's place. He was wearing a brown jacket with two large buttons on the front, similar to Andrew's jacket. Looking around, Andrew saw that the small room only contained the bed he was sitting on, along with a wooden chair and a small bedside table, which held his bag and jacket. The table must have been what he hit his arm on.

"W-who are you?" asked Andrew shakily.

"My name's Ben," said the boy, holding out his hand.

"Andrew." He also held out his hand to shake, but he winced at the cut on his elbow.

"Oh, let me fix that..." said Ben, taking Andrew's right arm.

"What are you-" Andrew stopped short when Ben's fingertips started to glow a slight green. Ben gently placed his fingers on Andrew's arm right next to the cut. A cool sensation spread through his arm, and a moment later, the cut closed up completely, not even leaving a scar. Ben took a step back and allowed Andrew to examine his arm.

"Feel better?" asked Ben after a moment.

Andrew laughed a bit and looked up at Ben. "You're a Healer!"

Ben nodded, smiling. "Best Grace of them all... well, aside from yours."

Andrew shook his head. "I don't think my Grace is the best..." he muttered, looking down at his left shoulder. The burn had been bandaged tightly and his arm was now in a sling.

"Yeah... sorry about your shoulder," said Ben, almost guiltily. "I'm usually pretty good with burns, but that one was so deep..."

"Well, I've never made so much fire at one time..." said Andrew.

"So what happened anyways?" asked Ben, pulling up the chair and sitting down. "I mean, one minute there's a bunch of fire, and then a snap, and then the fire was gone and you were unconscious with a bleeding shoulder."

Andrew groaned. "It's called backlash. I kinda panicked and lost control, and it snapped right back at me."

"Hm... but I thought you would be immune to your own fire," said Ben.

"When I have control of it, I'm immune. When I lose control, I burn just like anyone else... But what about you? Is it even possible for you to get hurt?" asked Andrew.

"Sure it is," said Ben, tapping on his eye patch. "I just heal a lot faster than normal. I mean, when I lost my eye I didn't even realize it was gone until that night, when James started dumping water on my head to wash off the blood..."

Andrew winced at the though. "So... who's James?" he asked after a minute.

Ben looked at his watch. "He'll be back in a few minutes... I think he said something about getting food."

Andrew nodded a bit. "So uh... what kind of Healer are you? I mean... I've heard that there are different kinds of Healers, so..."

"I can heal wounds," said Ben. "Y'know, simple flesh wounds, burn wounds, stab wounds, bullet wounds... and the occasional broken bone or paper cut. But I _can't_ heal any sicknesses or infections. That's an entirely different league. I can't heal poison either, but I _do_ know how to get it out."

"What about an infected wound?" asked Andrew.

Ben shook his head. "Nope. That's why I wasn't sure if your shoulder got infected." A second later, Ben leaned forward and pressed the back of his hand to Andrew's forehead. "In fact, you still feel a bit feverish..."

"That's my Grace," said Andrew. "My temperature has always been about three degrees above average... That's why I hardly ever get cold."

Ben nodded. "That seems useful."

Andrew shrugged, smiling. "So where are we?" he asked.

"Somewhere way out in the forest," said Ben. "On the edge of the blast zone."

"The blast zone?" asked Andrew. "So there _were_ bombs?"

Ben looked shocked. "You mean... you mean you don't know about the bombs? The war?"

Andrew shook his head.

Ben stared at him. "Where did you come from anyways...?" he asked. "And why were you in the Dead City?"

"I don't know!" exclaimed Andrew. "I just woke up there in an old hospital." He lowered his voice a bit. "There was a body in the room with me..."

Ben was quiet for a moment. "You just... _woke up_ there?"

Andrew nodded.

"Do you know how long you were asleep...?"

Andrew had no idea. He opened his mouth to say so, but at that moment the door opened, and a man poked his head in.

"Is he awake yet?" the man asked.

"See for yourself," said Ben, moving aside so that the man could see Andrew.

"Fantastic!" exclaimed the man, fully entering the room. He was holding a small tray of food. It wasn't much – just a few pieces of bread, a few strawberries, and a glass of water – but just the sight of it made Andrew's mouth water.

"Here," said the man, setting the tray on Andrew's lap. "You look like you need it."

Andrew could barely get the words "Thank you" out of his mouth before it was filled with bread and strawberries.

"Don't hurt yourself," laughed Ben as Andrew viciously tore apart one of the pieces of bread.

After about ten seconds, the food was all gone and Andrew was slightly less ravenous. Now that there was no more food left to distract him, Andrew was able to get a good look at the other man who had come in. It was clear that he was much older than Ben; probably about 50. He had brown hair with streaks of gray in it; however, most of the gray streaks were hidden under a dark gray hat that he was wearing. He was wearing a white long-sleeve shirt with a brown vest and a gray bow-tie. His right eye was silver, and his left eye was brown. Andrew wondered what _his_ Grace was.

"Well, it's good that you're awake," said the man. "My name's James. And you are...?"

"Andrew," he said, smiling. "Um... were you the two that I followed into the forest?"

Both James and Ben nodded.

"We were out there looking for more car batteries," said Ben.

"What do you need car batteries for...?" asked Andrew.

"We don't get electricity out here," explained James. "This place had been abandoned for years when we found it, so we've been using car batteries and plane batteries to power the lights."

Andrew held up his hands. "Hold on, back up. Where did you get _plane_ batteries? And where are we? And... when did this _war_ start?"

James glanced over at Ben. "He doesn't know...?"

Ben shook his head. "He doesn't even know how long he's been in a coma..."

"I'm still sitting right here!" exclaimed Andrew, starting to get frustrated. "And who said anything about being in a coma?"

"We can only assume..." said James. "You know nothing about the war, or the attacks. And judging by your diminished physique, you've been in a coma for quite some time. Also, those scars on your chest mean that you've been kept alive by multiple life-sustaining machines."

"Not to mention that thing around your neck," said Ben, gesturing to the chain around Andrew's neck.

"This?" asked Andrew, pulling the necklace out from under his shirt. The circular rust-colored pendant glinted in the dim light. "How is _this_ thing keeping me alive?" He started to take the necklace off.

"NO!" exclaimed Ben, lunging forward. He grabbed Andrew's arms and pinned them to his side, preventing him from removing the necklace. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not...?" asked Andrew cautiously.

"Because..." Ben gulped and slowly let go of Andrew's arms. He slowly sat back and looked down at his feet. "Because when we brought you in here to fix your shoulder, I took it off and... your heart stopped."

Andrew stared at him for a moment before looking down at the pendant. He slowly tucked it safely back inside his shirt.

"So..." said Andrew after a minute, "who was that guy out there with the knives? And why was he hunting us?"

"I don't think he'll be doing much hunting now that you've blasted his eye out," laughed Ben. "Karma's a bitch, isn't it?"

James elbowed Ben in the ribs before explaining. "We're being hunted because we've all got valuable Graces."

"But why does it matter what Graces we have?" asked Andrew, starting to get frustrated again.

"Because of the war!" came a voice from by the door. Ben and James jumped at the sound of the voice and whipped around, at the same time stepping out of the way so that Andrew could see who had just entered.

By the door stood a man about the same age as James, maybe a bit older. He had the same olive skin tone as Andrew, and he had white hair. He was wearing a white jacket that was held together with a large belt buckle; a red cape was draped over his shoulders and was held on with a large reddish-purple gem. He was wearing a tall hat that looked like it once belonged to a pope, and he was holding a large staff with a curved and slightly jagged edge at the top. The hat had a number 1 inked onto the front, and the staff had a bell on the end. His right eye was the same reddish-purple as the gem, and his left eye was a golden yellow. He stalked forward slowly, his narrowed eyes focused on Andrew.

"So clueless..." he muttered, looking Andrew up and down as if he were examining a piece of rotten meat.

"I'm only clueless because nobody will tell me anything," Andrew snapped back, already on edge.

The man smirked. "Even if you knew everything about the war and the Gracebeasts, you would still find something to be clueless about."

"Christopher, leave the boy alone," said James, stepping in front of Andrew. "He only just woke up!"

James and the man, Christopher, glared at each other for a solid minute, and they probably would have stayed that way until the door opened and someone else walked in.

The person that walked in was so _big_ that Andrew swore he felt the ground shake. The man was a solid six and a half, maybe seven feet tall! His arms were as thick as tree trunks, and he was carrying a large axe. He had dark brown, almost black, hair, pale skin, a goatee, and he was wearing a torn up white jacket along with what looked like makeshift shoulder pads that might as well have been made of wood. The jacket was held together with three black clips; well, technically two clips since the middle clip was broken. Andrew could see the number _8_ inked onto the right shoulder of the jacket. He also noticed that the man's right eye was blue, and his left eye was brown. Andrew had a hunch that this guy had a strength Grace.

Christopher turned towards the giant. "Our new guest seems confused..." he said. The huge guy lifted his axe a bit and somehow made himself look even more intimidating.

Turning away from the still-glaring James, Christopher started to walk towards the door. "Follow me," he said over his shoulder. Ben, James, and the huge guy instantly followed him, and Andrew had a strong impulse to follow also. He shakily got to his feet and grabbed his jacket and bag off of the bedside table. He quickly shrugged his jacket on over his good shoulder and slung his bag on before following after the group.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, he stopped and looked around, his jaw agape. Now he finally realized where they were. They were in an old abandoned cathedral. The floor they were on was dark and dusty; Andrew could see the dust particles floating through the air, filtering the sunlight streaming through the dirty windows. Seeing the sunlight confirmed that it had been at least a day since he woke up in the city.

A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his trance. Looking over, he saw Ben standing next to him. The huge guy was standing right behind them. Gulping, Andrew started walking with Ben next to him and the huge guy following right behind. Up ahead, Christopher and James were walking; James still looked like he wanted to smash something over Christopher's head. As they walked, Andrew noticed the number _2_ drawn on the back of James' vest. Christopher's cape was covering up his number, but Andrew had a feeling that he already knew what it was.

Looking ahead, Andrew saw that they were walking towards what looked like the bottom half of an elevator. As they reached it, Andrew saw that he was right. The elevator had been cut clean in half, almost surgically. The sliding mechanical doors had been replaced by a single door on hinges, and there was strange device that looked like a mechanical crank attached to the wall of the elevator opposite of the door. The crank was attached to a multitude of thick cables that stretched upwards and into the shadows of the ceiling. The edge of the elevator came up to Andrew's chest.

Christopher opened the door and stepped inside, followed by James and Ben. Andrew started to step in, but the big guy behind him gave him a rough shove, nearly sending him sprawling and confirming his suspicions about him having a strength Grace all in one second. Andrew would have face-planted against the hard floor of the elevator if Ben hadn't caught him.

"Not funny, Josh," Ben snarled at the big guy, who was now laughing as he slammed the door shut behind him. Sighing, Ben helped Andrew back to his feet. "You better hold on," he said.

"I think he just cracked my spine..." moaned Andrew quietly as he grabbed onto the edge of the elevator. Turning, he saw James flip a switch, and the elevator lurched upwards. The mechanical crank was activated and the elevator started to rise up into the shadows.

Looking across the elevator, Andrew saw that Christopher was glaring at him as if he wanted to stab him with a fork. Andrew gulped, but before he got the chance to say anything, the elevator stopped with a jolt.

"Rusty hacked-together stupid piece of metal..." James muttered under his breath as examined the mechanical crank, which had stopped working and was now smoking and throwing off sparks.

"What happened?" grumbled the huge guy, Josh, in a voice as deep as thunder.

"The generator died," groaned James. "I'll have to lift it up manually."

Andrew glanced over at Ben, who gave him a reassuring nod.

James knelt down next to the side of the metal casing surrounding the crank. He placed both hands flat against the metal surface and closed his eyes. Almost immediately, arcs of electricity started jumping across his fingers. The elevator started to move again.

A minute later, the elevator rose above the ceiling and came up into a brighter room. Now Andrew could _really_ tell that they were in a cathedral. The room was old and the ceiling was high. There were bookcases lining the wall to the right of the elevator. High on the wall across the room was a large stain-glass window with what looked to be a throne on the wall under it. A few tables were scattered around the room and there were a few doors that lead off into different parts of the cathedral. Andrew noticed that something had been drawn on the wall in black ink, but he couldn't quite tell what it was.

Turning, Andrew saw Ben flip a lever on the side of the crank. When he did that, James opened his eyes and took his hands off of the crank. Christopher swung the door open and exited the elevator, followed closely by Josh.

Ben started to step out, but he turned and looked back and James, who was now adjusting something on the crank. "Are you coming?" he asked.

James shook his head. "I have to go back down and repair the generator before nightfall," he said without looking up. "You stay with Andrew and make sure Josh doesn't try and throw him down the elevator shaft."

Ben nodded and took Andrew by his good arm. "C'mon..." he said, leading Andrew out of the elevator. Once they were out, James swung the door closed and released the latch on the side of the crank. The elevator slowly descended out of view.

Ben and Andrew walked forward after Christopher and Josh. As they walked, however, Andrew saw something move out of the corner of his eye. As he looked over towards where he had seen the movement, he saw a dark shadow disappear into a dark room in the far corner of the main room.

Before Andrew could open his mouth to ask Ben about the shadow, he felt a hand on his good shoulder. Turning, he saw that the hand belonged to Christopher.

"I'm going to assume that you know absolutely nothing about the war," said Christopher. "So stay quiet and don't interrupt me." With that, he turned and faced the window and began to speak.

"Tensions have always run high between the Graced and the Ungraced," he said. "They thought us to be unnatural monsters; that our being here is just an accident."

Andrew tried to open his mouth to speak, but he found that he couldn't.

"But," Christopher continued, "they were simply jealous. They envied the powers we possessed, and that turned _them_ into monsters."

Now Andrew found the power to break the spell that was keeping him from speaking. "That's not true for every Ungraced person," he said.

Christopher whipped around, his eyes wide with shock. "You-... I... I told you not to interrupt!" he exclaimed, more shocked than angry.

Andrew ignored him. "Not all Ungraced people are monsters," he said angrily. "My parents were Ungraced!"

"And my sister was Ungraced, and she's dead now because of it," Christopher snarled back. "And if you interrupt me again, I'll have Josh throw you down the elevator shaft."

Andrew glanced over at the giant, who was standing there mindlessly scratching his backside.

"Anyways," said Christopher, continuing his lecture, "the Ungraced population became paranoid that we were trying to take over the world and enslave them. They attacked us first... and that city-" Christopher pointed towards the direction of the Dead City, "-was the first place they struck. Most of the population was Graced... We didn't stand a chance against the bombs..."

* * *

_Planes flew overhead. Explosions rocked the ground. Buildings crumbled and collapsed. The sky was black with smoke and the ground was stained red with blood. The war had truly begun._

_Four people were hiding in an old building on the edge of the city, so close to the forest that it was nearly surrounded by trees on all sides. Inside the building, Christopher stood by the door waiting, Josh was pacing nervously, and James was attending to a small dark-haired boy who was lying on the floor, curled up in a ball. The boy had already bled through the bandages wrapped around his pale chest, and he had started to cough up blood._

"_There they are!" exclaimed Christopher. He pulled the door open, and on the other side stood a girl wearing a white jacket. Her long black hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and her blue right eye and gray left eye shone with fear and excitement._

"_I found the others," she said breathlessly, ignoring the bleeding gash on her upper right arm. She turned back to a large pile of burnt debris and waved her hand. The first to run into the building were two children, both of them wearing identical blue hoodies. They were twins, no older than 13. Once they were safely inside, the dark-haired girl waved again._

_Another pair of twins dashed out from behind the debris. These two were easier to tell apart, even though they both had red hair, the same skin tone, and looked exactly the same. Their eyes were different, and they wore different colored shirts. The boy with the green right eye, brown left eye, and green shirt was Ben. The boy with the brown right eye, green left eye, and blue shirt was his twin, Henry. As soon as they made it inside the building, the girl entered too and Christopher closed the door._

"_We can't stay here long," said Christopher, turning to the group. "I know somewhere deep in the forest where we can hide."_

"_The forest?" exclaimed the girl as she knelt down next to the bleeding boy. "But it's the middle of January! We'll all freeze to death!"_

_Another explosion shook the building. The bombs were getting closer._

"_Either we risk freezing out in the forest, or we die here by the hand of the Ungraced!" Christopher shouted._

_That was when the fire bomb hit the building. The flaming ball of metal crashed down so close to Ben that some of his hair got singed._

"_EVERYBODY OUT!" Christopher shouted, shoving the younger twins through the door. Josh and James were quick to follow. The girl quickly picked up the bleeding boy, her younger brother, and ran out the door, following the others. _

_Henry and Ben were almost out the door when Ben tripped. When Henry saw his brother go down, he stopped and turned._

"_Keep going!" Ben shouted as he got to his feet. But it was too late. The bomb exploded in a massive ball of fire, destroying the building and sending the brothers flying into the forest._

_Ben was only unconscious for a moment. When he lifted his head and looked around, he was aware of a burning pain on the left side of his face and on his lower back. He couldn't feel his legs, and his ears were ringing. Craning his neck around, Ben saw a long piece of metal shrapnel sticking out of his back. The shrapnel had gone right through his spine. Reaching back, he yanked the piece of metal out so that the nerves could reattach themselves and give him his legs back._

_That was when he saw Henry, lying ten feet away, not moving. _

_Gasping, he army-crawled towards his brother. By the time he made it there, his spine had repaired itself and he regained feeling in his legs. Pushing himself up on his knees, he leaned over his brother._

"_Henry?" he gasped. "Henry, can you hear me?"_

_Henry didn't respond. He was dead pale, and there was blood dripping down his forehead. That was when Ben saw the long piece of metal shrapnel sticking out of Henry's stomach._

"_B-Ben..." Henry gasped out, feebly grabbing his brother's arm. Blood was already started to drip out of his mouth._

"_C-c-calm d-down," gasped Ben. "Y-y-you'll b-be o-o-okay..." He reached down and gently pulled the shard of metal out as clean as he could. He knew he had to heal his brother, because Henry couldn't heal himself. Henry could only heal sickness. _

_Ben gently placed his trembling, bloody hands around the wound. He tried to blink back the tears, but his vision was still blurry. The wound was starting to close, but not fast enough. Henry coughed convulsively, causing the wound to open up again. More and more blood was pouring out, and Henry's hand had gone as cold as ice. Ben tried again to heal the wound, but he couldn't focus. It was all too much._

"_Ben..." Henry gasped out, his voice barely a whisper._

"_Y-y-you're o-okay..." Ben stammered frantically, trying to staunch the bleeding._

"_Ben..." His hand fell from Ben's arm._

"_Y-y-you're g-g-gonna b-be f-f-fine..." His hands were now covered in his brother's blood._

"_Ben..."_

_He finally stopped and looked at Henry, tears streaming down his face. "Y-yeah...?"_

_Henry smiled weakly, his eyes glassy. "I'll t-tell M-Mom and D-Dad t-that you s-said hi..." Then he closed his eyes, let out a long sigh, and died..._

_Ben sat there, not wanting to believe it. His brother was gone. He had been too late to save him._

_Suddenly, he felt someone grab his arm and start to drag him away._

"_NO!" he screamed, reaching out towards his brother._

"_Ben, listen to me," said a voice in his ear, a voice he knew belonged to James. "He's gone. There's nothing you can do. We have to go now."_

"_I can't leave him!" Ben cried, the tears flowing faster._

"_We have to," said another voice, this one belonging to the dark-haired girl. She grabbed Ben's arm and helped James drag him away from the body!_

"_NO!" Ben screamed again, his voice cracking as he started to sob. "PLEASE, NO!" He started thrashing, trying to get out of James and the girl's grip and get back to his brother. After a minute, when he realized escape was futile, he stopped struggling. Instead, he let out a long, blood-chilling scream that echoed through the darkening forest. And then he went limp._

_By the time they reached the others, Ben was catatonic. As James and the girl dragged him past Christopher, the girl glared and shook her head. Christopher looked at the ground, trying not to let the guilt of ordering them to leave Ben behind show._

"_This way..." he said quietly, starting to walk deeper into the forest. He was followed by James and the girl, who were still dragging Ben, and Josh, who was carrying the unconscious bleeding boy, and the silent hooded twins. The sounds of war and death followed them all the way from the city._

* * *

"...I brought us here," finished Christopher, "to a Sanctuary. And here we waited, until the war eventually moved on. When the world outside grew quiet, I knew we were safe..."

Now Andrew felt like he could speak without getting tossed down the elevator shaft. "But we're _not_ safe..." he said. "We're still being hunted like animals!"

Christopher sighed. "That is the work of the Gracebeasts," he said, gesturing to the drawing on the wall. Now Andrew could see that the picture was a frightening silhouette of the man with the knives and the agility of a cat.

"What are Gracebeasts?" asked Andrew cautiously. "And why are they hunting us?"

"Gracebeasts are men who have been given unnatural Graces in unnatural ways," said Christopher.

"Wait... you mean _man-made _Graces?" exclaimed Andrew.

"That's exactly what I mean," said Christopher. "And they're hunting us because the war is still being waged elsewhere. They need valuable Graces like ours to help win the war."

Andrew shook his head. "So... whose side are we on?"

Christopher turned and started to walk towards his throne. "We're on nobody's side, because nobody is on our side." When he reached his throne, he sat down with a sigh. "Take him to the watchtower," he said to Ben. "Go show him what I mean..."

Ben nodded and gestured for Andrew to follow him. They walked towards one of the doors near the elevator; however, as they walked, Andrew heard an eerie sound coming from the dark room. It sounded like somebody was humming.

Christopher watched as they left the room. Once they were gone, Josh turned to him.

"Need me to stop Stripes from humming?" he asked.

Christopher shook his head slowly. "No... why don't you go sharpen your machete or something."

Josh nodded and quickly left the room. As soon as he was gone, Christopher reached into his pocket and pulled out the small photograph he always kept with him. He looked at it, and his little sister looked back. He closed his eyes, but that didn't stop the tears from escaping.

After a few minutes of silent crying, he opened his eyes again and looked towards the dark room. He saw a pair of wide eyes looking back at him, but he didn't really care. The boy would never tell anyone that he actually had a heart...

* * *

_A/N: Okay, this chapter was originally gonna be longer, but I really wanted to stop on that note. Even though I don't like 1, we all know that he really does care..._

_And if anybody finds the Lord of the Rings quote, I'll give them a giant cookie! So... enjoy and review! =D_


	3. Gracebeasts

_A/N: Uh oh. Elliq – my evil self – is pissed, so... watch out. Someone's gonna die in this chapter. Also, this is just an update to show that I really am working on this story... and I'm stuck on the last chapter of Fever. ****_

* * *

**Gracepunk**

Warren stood uncomfortably outside of a small, metal room with a locked door. He was watching through a one-way mirror as a small boy – no more than nine years old – sat curled up on the floor, shivering and bleeding heavily from a large wound on his side. The boy's torturer, Rogue, had left a moment ago and left Warren to watch the child.

Rogue had tortured the child, pushing him past his limits. The boy had revealed information about the location of several other Gracelings.

Rogue had gone to deliver the information to the Baron. Warren knew what would happen once he got back.

The boy inside the room continued to shiver. Warren knew from several painful experiences that the torture room – commonly called the Cold Room – was at least twenty degrees colder than anywhere else in the prison.

Suddenly, the door opened and Rogue strode into the corridor. He roughly shoved Warren aside, even though he wasn't in the way. Warren didn't say anything. Even though he was a whole head taller than Rogue, he was rail thin and unable to fight in close quarters. Also, Rogue had the worst temper in the prison, aside from the Baron.

And his Grace made him unbeatable.

Rogue unlocked the iron door to the Cold Room and entered, not even bothering to close the door behind him. The small boy looked up at him, his eyes wide and terrified.

"Thank you for the information," said Rogue, his voice as cold as steel. "We won't be needing you any more..."

Then Rogue picked the boy up and slammed him against the wall, pinning him a foot above the ground. The boy squirmed, and Rogue sent a blast of electricity through his arm, electrocuting the boy.

Warren looked away as the boy convulsed with electricity. However, he happened to look down. There he saw the small video monitor connected to the video camera on the ceiling of the Cold Room. The video tape was still rolling, and he watched as Rogue stopped the flow of electricity and stuck a knife deep into the boy's stomach. The boy let out a wail of pain as blood gushed out of his mouth in a red foam. Blood started soaking around the knife and dripping down onto the ground.

Rogue dropped the boy on the ground – the knife still deep in his stomach – and stepped on his arm. A loud, sickening crack echoed through the room and the closed off corridor, which Warren could hear clearly due to the open door. Rogue bent down and twisted the knife a couple times, his face completely emotionless as always. He then kicked the kid in the side, cracking some ribs.

By now, the boy was too weak from pain and blood loss to continue screaming. All he could do was moan weakly and wait for it all to be over.

Finally, Rogue had had his fill. He slowly picked the boy up by the knife handle sticking out of his chest. He then slammed the boy face-first into the solid metal wall. There was a sickening _crunch_ as the boy's skull cracked open and splattered like an egg, smearing blood and the gray matter of his brain all over the wall. Rogue dropped the body to the ground, and Warren slowly turned off the video camera. He then turned and ran out of the corridor, sickened by the whole ordeal.

Once he made it to the stairs back up to the main part of the prison, he stopped and caught his breath. He couldn't let any of the others see him ready to vomit. Then they would make fun of him even more than they usually do.

Taking a deep breath, Warren ascended the stairs. The only people he ran into were the clean-up crew, heading down to the Cold Room to clean up the mess Rogue had made.

Once he made it back to the ground level, he quickly turned down a dark corridor that would take him to the hospital wing, but would steer him clear of the main rooms.

He heard Felix long before he saw him. Felix came stumbling down the corridor out of the hospital, shouting obscenities at the top of his lungs. Warren watched from the shadows as Felix stumbled around the corner...

...and ran right into a wall.

"Stupid fucking wall..." he muttered, stepping back and feeling his way through the door. He could barely see due to the bandages wrapped around his head and face, covering his right eye.

"Are walls invisible to you now?" asked Warren, stepping out of the shadows and into sight. Felix jumped back and reached for his belt, but he found no knives.

"Aww, did the kitty cat get declawed?" joked Warren.

"If I get declawed, then I'll find some scissors and clip your precious wings," snarled Felix, his temper flaring.

Warren took a step back and glanced down at his favorite wings, the pair he wore strapped to his arms and chest all the time in case he needed to make a hasty escape from Rogue, or any of the other Gracebeasts that felt like bullying him. He was often joked because he was the worst fighter in the entire prison, and because he was one of the first experiments. He and Felix were both experiments, but he had drawn the short straw, so to speak. Felix was supposed to have been given a simple agility Grace, but instead he had gotten the agility of a cat. Instead of being a Gracebeast, the others called him the Cat Beast. Warren's Grace had been a simple stealth Grace, but something went wrong, and now, instead of simply being quiet on his feet, he was completely weightless. However, he still retained his strength, which let him fly and not be blown over by the wind. That was how he had gotten his nickname: the Winged Beast.

"So, what's the deal with your eye?" asked Warren, crossing his long thin arms over his chest.

Felix crossed his arms over his chest, looking like a small pouting child. "I'm blind in my right eye. The Healers couldn't do anything about it."

"That sucks..." muttered Warren, glancing at the ground. "But at least you get to keep your eye, right?"

Felix nodded a bit. "Yeah, I guess..." he grumbled.

Warren kicked a small rock on the ground. If he had to choose between losing an eye and going blind in one, he would rather lose an eye. Hopefully if it ever came to that, he would lose his right eye, the bright red one. That way he could at least pass off as a normal person, or at least a Graceling with his dark gray left eye.

Suddenly, the room got uncomfortably colder and considerably darker. Warren and Felix both shuddered at the ominous feeling. The feeling of being watched.

Suddenly, a loud, hiss – so deep it sounded like a growl – came from down the dark corridor, right behind Felix. He whipped around and, when he didn't see anything, he slowly backed up next to Warren, his working eye wide.

"Please tell me you have a knife with you..." Felix whispered to Warren. Warren nodded slightly, and he pulled a small dagger from his belt and handed it to Felix, who held it loosely in his hand, ready to throw it.

That was when something cold and scaly slithered over Warren's foot. Jumping back with a loud squeal, Warren looked down and saw a giant black cobra slowly curling itself around his scrawny ankle. He froze, too scared to move. The last thing he wanted to do was anger the snake and get bitten again. He had been bitten once before; the venom had nearly paralyzed him, and was the reason for the twitch in his right arm and hand.

"Don't run," hissed an old, crackly voice from the other end of the corridor. "Ssshe won't bite you if you hold ssstill."

Warren felt his blood freeze, and he saw all the color leave Felix's face. They both knew that voice. They had heard it plenty of times in their nightmares...

Slowly, they turned around. At first they didn't see her because of her dark brown snake-skin cloak. Then they saw her eyes, and the rest followed. She was standing only a few feet away in all her hideous glory.

She was called many things. The Snake Whisperer. The Walking Shadow. The Freaky Bitch, as Felix called her. But none of them were more famous than the first name she had been given:

The Seamstress.

Her name had once been Sasha, but the name had been too innocent. The Seamstress was more accurate, because it told what she did with her victims. She had tortured people in hundreds of different ways with only a needle and some thread. And there was more meaning behind her name, for underneath her snake-skin cloak, she wore a cloak made entirely of human skin. Warren could even see a bit of fresh skin not entirely hidden by her cloak. He knew it was fresh because it was still bleeding...

The Seamstress looked down at the snake, which happened to be her pet and partner in torture. She made a small gesture, and the snake slithered away from Warren's leg and towards her. The old witch bent down, and the cobra curled lovingly around her arm. She stood upright again and looked at Warren and Felix.

Warren had to keep reminding himself not to look at her snakelike eyes, the left one blue and the right one red. If he looked at the eyes for too long, he would lose his mind completely. Instead, he looked at her crooked nose and her horrible mouth. She was missing most of her teeth; there were only a few left on the top, and there was one left on the bottom. Due to her massive under-bite, the one tooth on the bottom stuck out whenever she closed her mouth.

Warren started to feel slightly nauseous, so instead, he turned his eyes to his own feet until the Seamstress finally spoke.

"The Baron wantsss to ssspeak to you..." she hissed. Then she turned and disappeared into the shadows, leaving Warren and Felix standing still as statues, to scared to move. Finally, Felix managed to swallow the lump in his throat and speak up.

"W-we s-s-should p-probably go..." he stammered, his teeth chattering. "B-b-before s-she c-c-comes back..."

Warren could only nod. Then he and Felix took off down the hall in the opposite direction the Seamstress had gone.

Everyone except the Baron feared the Seamstress. Even Rogue, who slept with a poisonous scorpion under his pillow, was scared of her. It was easy to see why.

After a minute, Warren and Felix calmed down enough to walk. They made it to the main room a moment later.

When they got there, the Baron was sitting on his metallic throne. His left eye was closed, and his right eye was gone and had been replaced by a mechanical eye-patch; both of his robotic hands were clasped together, and he rested his forehead on them, his long black hair streaked with gray falling in front of his face. His right leg – his only limb that wasn't mechanical – was twitching a bit as he impatiently tapped his foot. The small yet bulky generator strapped to his back was sparking and whirring away to keep his limbs functional, and it would occasionally let out a small squirt of oil, which would smear itself onto his body, his throne, or the floor near the throne.

"How long...?" the Baron asked as Warren and Felix cautiously approached, wary of the mindless drones watching from the shadows of the room.

"H-how long... what?" asked Felix nervously.

"How long have you been chasing this particular group of Gracelings...?" the Baron asked, sitting upright and opening his bright red eye, which was blazing with fury.

"A-about five years, sir..." said Felix, wringing his hands together.

"Five years," repeated the Baron, slowly rising to his feet, the action provoking his mechanical leg to squeak and drip a bit more oil. "And in those five years, have you even been injured by any of those particular Gracelings?"

"No sir..." muttered Felix, looking at the ground.

The Baron nodded, his aged and scarred face emotionless but his eye still betraying his anger. "And now, they find a new Graceling with an unnatural Grace, and he manages to blind you in your right eye."

Felix nodded, still looking at the ground.

"Where did you say you first saw him again?" asked the Baron.

Felix gulped before speaking. "I was following 2 and 5 through the Dead City, and then next thing I know, this kid came out of nowhere..."

"So he was in the Dead City too?"

Felix nodded.

"Did he have a number...?"

Felix pushed his spiky black hair out of his eye. "Uh... yes... I think I remember a number..." he said. "It was... 9."

The Baron suddenly got a slightly distant look in his eye, but it only lasted for a moment. "9?"

Felix nodded uneasily.

The Baron slowly nodded. "Did you happen to see his eye color?" he asked.

It took Felix a moment, but he did remember. "Yeah, one eye was green, and the other eye was bright orange..."

"Bright orange...?" muttered the Baron. "That's very close to red..."

The Baron slowly walked forward until he was a few feet away. He was a whole head taller than the six-foot-four Warren, and he was even more intimidating up close.

"This changes everything," said the Baron. "We can no longer afford to ignore them. And you getting injured does not help one bit."

Felix finally looked up, his eye wide. "Why?" he asked.

"Because," said the Baron as he turned and started to walk back to his throne, "they have this new member who can severely injure any of us. We cannot afford to ignore them any more, and you won't be able to go after them any more because of your injury."

Felix and Warren both paled, knowing where the conversation was going.

"That's why I'm sending you out, Warren," said the Baron as he turned around.

Warren's face went completely blank. He knew that he Baron wasn't sending him out because of his fighting skills; he was sending him out to punish Felix and to finally get rid of his least favorite experiment.

Slowly, Warren nodded, his face not betraying any emotions at all. If anyone had walked in at that moment, they would have thought that Warren had just been sentenced to death. Which he basically had been already.

The Baron sat back down in his oily throne. "Go arm yourself," he said to Warren. "Then leave immediately."

Warren slowly nodded and then left the room with Felix right behind him.

As soon as they were past the guards, they were at the spiral stairwell that lead up to the tower where the weapons were stored. Warren heard Felix start to say something, but he didn't want to hear it. Instead, he simply grabbed the small straps on the front of his wings that served as a handhold for when he flew. He quickly spread his wings and then flew straight up through the stairwell towards the weapons tower, leaving Felix in the dust.

As soon as he made it to the landing, he let his wings fall back to his side and he slowly walked into the weapons room. He was good at shooting, so he armed himself with his favorite harpoon gun, which he strapped to his back and arm. The part strapped to his back beneath his wings would hold all of the rope, and the part attached to his left arm was the spring-loaded gun. All he had to do was pull the harpoon out of the back piece and hook it into the arm piece.

Next he picked up a small hand-held gun. It was so small that it only held three bullets, but all he needed was one, seeing as they all had tracking devices in them. He started to load the gun, but a voice from behind stopped him.

"You should dip the bullets in Pitch," said the voice, which belonged to a slightly out of breath Felix.

"I don't like to use Pitch," said Warren, not turning around as he eyed the small jar filled with sticky black liquid sitting on one of the tables. He still had nightmares about Rogue torturing him with it.

"I know you don't like it, but you should use it anyways," said Felix. "That way if one of them gets away, they won't make it far."

"Still, I don't like it," said Warren, hunching his shoulders a bit. "It can still be lethal."

Felix rolled his eyes. "C'mon, it's the middle of October. And besides, it's only really lethal to Seers, and all the Seers are extinct."

"Fine, fine!" exclaimed Warren, finally giving in. He took the bullets over to the small jar of Pitch and dipped each one in several times. The black Pitch quickly disappeared, absorbed by the metal of the bullet. He then loaded his gun and stuffed it in a holder on his belt. Then he picked up a few more knives of different sizes before turning around to face Felix, who stood by the door with his arms crossed.

"I can't believe you're seriously going through with this..." Felix grumbled.

"Well, what choice do I have?!" exclaimed Warren, picking up a dark gray helmet. He pushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes and put the helmet on his head. He then gripped the handholds on his wings and walked towards the open window overlooking the Dead City. Far off in the distance, he could see the forest through the hazy darkness.

"Good luck," said Felix quietly, almost as if he were ashamed to admit that he was worried.

"Thanks..." said Warren. He stepped up onto the large window sill.

"Just... promise me two things," said Felix. "Catch some Gracelings, and don't die."

Warren nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

He had no idea that he would fail at one.

Then, without another word, he jumped out the window and spread his wings, soaring through the darkness and towards the forest, where the Gracepunks were hiding...

* * *

_A/N: King Cobras are the largest and most venomous snakes on the planet. Just thought I should let you know. Also, my computer nearly exploded when I was describing the Seamstress... Ugh..._

_Also, Rogue is based off of the villain from Fever, the Scorpion. Just thought I'd let ya know. SO... enjoy, and I'll try and update earlier next time._

_... and Elliq wrote the first part. Sorry. ^^;_


	4. Twins

_A/N: WHOO! GRACEPUNK! And you finally get to meet the female 'punks! So... enjoy. Sorry if nothing terribly interesting happens this chapter..._

* * *

**Gracepunk**

By the time Andrew and Ben reached the watchtower, the sun had already started to set, turning the sky fiery orange. The watchtower itself had once been a bell tower, but the bell was long gone, and hand-made rails had been added to the open sides, along with a large brass telescope and several workbenches.

Ben walked over to the edge, absently running his hand along the length of the smooth telescope as he went. When he reached the rail, he stopped and, turning, gestured for Andrew to come to the rail.

Andrew made his way over next to Ben and looked around. They were surrounded by nothing but trees on all sides. However, Andrew could see large man-made structures in the far distance, partly obscured by the evening haze coupled with the glare of the setting sun.

"See that?" asked Ben, pointing out ahead and to the left a bit. The area he was pointing to was covered in trees, but beyond that, Andrew could see that the trees ended and the landscape turned to what looked like a flat plane with small but jagged mountains littering the terrain.

"What is it?" asked Andrew.

"That's the Dead City," said Ben. "Or... that's what we call it now. That was the first place that got attacked."

"Who attacked it?" asked Andrew.

Ben pointed out and to the right. "They did," he said, gesturing to the silhouette of what looked to be a large city with several looming skyscrapers. "We call that the Sister City, because it was just like ours, but it's full of Ungraced people. Most of the evil Ungraced people have left, though. They followed the war to where ever it is now."

Andrew nodded a bit and looked around. He looked back towards the Dead City, and that was when he noticed something. "What's that?" he asked, pointing towards the barely visible silhouette that looked to be on the opposite edge of the Dead City.

A look of fear crossed Ben's face. "T-that's the Gracebeast's lair..." he said. "We call it the Factory." He then stepped away from the edge, swung the telescope around, and focused it on the Factory. "Take a look," he said, stepping back and gesturing for Andrew to look.

Andrew stepped up and looked through the telescope. He could see that the Factory had three tall towers, and there seemed to be parts of the building that were actually _moving_. It was the same with the ground around the Factory. There were strange mechanical moving objects that he couldn't quite make out, but he did see various vehicles and people moving around near the base of the Factory.

"Why do you call it the Factory?" asked Andrew, stepping away from the telescope.

Ben bit his lip. "Well... they... _experiment_ on people in there," he said quietly. "And they build and clone mindless drones. I've seen them myself! And they can also brainwash people."

"Seriously?" exclaimed Andrew. "If they can brainwash people then why haven't they... y'know... taken over the world yet...?"

Ben shrugged. "I guess it only works on people with certain Graces. I don't know."

Andrew nodded and glanced back out at the forest. When he did, however, something caught his eye. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to what looked like the roof to a small building, just barely poking through the tree cover a few miles away.

Ben squinted a bit, but when he saw what Andrew was looking at, his eye widened in realization. "That's the Library," he said. "The twins found it a couple months ago."

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Twins?"

Ben's face went blank. "Oh yeah, you haven't met them yet... C'mon, I'll introduce you."

"Uh, okay..." said Andrew, shrugging and following Ben down the stairs.

After a minute, Ben suddenly spoke up. "Have you had your appendix removed already?"

"Do you always start conversations like this?"

Ben rolled his eye. "I'm asking because we're nowhere near a hospital, and it's better to just take it out now so that you don't have to worry about getting appendicitis later when it's less convenient."

"When is appendicitis ever convenient?"

Ben shrugged.

"Well, yeah, I had mine taken out last year," lied Andrew. He hadn't had his appendix taken out yet, but he wasn't about to let Ben operate on him. He had only just met him after all.

"Good," said Ben, nodding. "I just asked because I was thinking about when I had to remove an appendix last week... Yeah, it was messy..."

"Okay... my turn to ask a question," said Andrew. "Do you have ADD?"

Before Ben could answer, they reached the throne room. Christopher was sprawled on his throne, fast asleep. There were several empty whiskey bottles scattered around the floor next to his throne.

Ben quickly signaled for Andrew to be silent, and then they slowly walked into the room. Ben quietly walked across the room towards another staircase right next to the dark room that the creepy humming had come from earlier. As they passed the room, Andrew glanced inside. What he saw made him stop.

Every inch of the wall was covered in drawings. There were so many that most of the drawings had started overlapping each other. The ink that they had been drawn with stained the floor, and there were several large piles of empty ink bottles.

The drawings themselves were just as strange. Almost all of the depicted a strange circular object with strange symbols. But the symbols looked strangely _familiar_...

Before Andrew could think about it any further, Ben grabbed his arm and pulled him up the stairs.

"What was that?" asked Andrew as they ran up the stairs.

Ben glanced back at Ben, looking slightly nervous. "Uh... I'll tell you later..." he said.

Suddenly, just as they reached the landing of the next floor, there was a loud _SLAM_!

"Shit..." muttered Ben. He looked around frantically for a hiding spot, but before he could find one, Josh stumbled through one of the doors and onto the landing, drunk. He was holding a machete loosely in one hand.

Andrew and Ben cautiously backed up against the wall. Andrew clenched his right fist and lit a small fireball, which he kept concealed in his palm. If Josh attacked them, then he might be able to fend him off, but it would be difficult with just one functioning arm.

Suddenly, Josh's glare snapped towards them. He angrily slurred out something unintelligible, wildly gesturing with his machete.

"Josh, just calm down," gulped Ben.

This seemed to infuriate the giant. He yelled something at them and then drew his arm back to throw the machete.

_WHAM!_

Someone came out of nowhere and tackled Josh, knocking him to the ground and making him drop his machete. Whoever it was wrestled Josh onto his stomach and pinned his arm behind his back, pressing his face into the ground until he stopped squirming.

Now that they had stopped moving, Andrew could see that whoever attacked Josh was wearing a white hockey helmet with a tinted visor. They were also wearing a torn up white jacket; the back of the jacket had been particularly torn up so badly that Andrew could barely see the number 7 printed on the back.

The person in the white jacket bent down and said something inaudible to Josh, then pointed off towards one of the closed doors down the hallway. Josh nodded, and the person got off of his back. Josh staggered to his feet, picked up his machete, and slunk off into the room he had been directed to.

The person wearing white slowly stood up and faced them. Andrew could see that they were holding a broken hockey stick with a large blade tied on the end, creating a makeshift spear. Slowly, the person lifted the hockey helmet...

Underneath the helmet was a girl, a bit older than Andrew. She was smiling at them, her light blue and silver eyes showing no hostility. She had pale skin, and, once she removed her helmet, he could see that she had long black hair that had been pulled back in a ponytail.

Andrew saw Ben relax, and he too relaxed, extinguishing the fireball in his hand.

"Where have you been?!" exclaimed Ben, stepping forward and hugging the girl.

"I was only gone for a week," scoffed the girl, shrugging. Then she turned to Andrew. "Well where have you been hiding?"

Andrew blushed and suddenly lost his ability to speak. Ben saw him blushing and covered for him.

"This is Andrew," he said. "We found him wandering around in the Dead City, so we kept him."

The girl laughed, and then she stepped forward and shook Andrew's hand, which had been hanging limp by his side.

"Nice to meet ya, Andrew," she said. "My name's Jen. It's short for Jennifer, but if you call me that, I'll punch you in the face." Her smile didn't falter as she said this.

Andrew swallowed the lump in his throat. "N-n-nice to meet you too..." he stammered, saying the only thing he could think of.

Jen laughed. "I like this one," she said to Ben, who was standing to the side trying to smother his laughter.

Jen turned back to Andrew. "So where were you guys heading?" she asked.

"Well uh... Ben said he was gonna introduce me to some twins..." said Andrew awkwardly.

"Really?" asked Jen, glancing over at Ben, who had managed to stop his laughter but still had a goofy smile on his face. "I'll come too if you guys don't mind. I haven't seen the twins in a while."

Ben nodded. "Sounds good, if that's okay with you, Andrew," he said.

Andrew blushed again. "Y-yeah, I d-d-don't mind..." he stammered before thinking to himself: _Damn, I really need to remember how to talk to girls..._

"Awesome!" exclaimed Jen, setting her hockey helmet down. "Then we better go before Josh smokes some more Magnet and decides to set the building on fire."

"Right!" exclaimed Ben. "Onwards!" He then marched off towards another set of stairs with Andrew close behind him, his face still red.

Jen started to follow them, but then her heightened senses told her that someone was watching. She turned around and saw a small dark figure poking its head out of one of the other doors at the end of the hallway. She smiled and gave the figure a subtle wave, and then put one finger to her lips, the universal signal to stay quiet. The little figure returned the wave, nodded, and then disappeared into the shadows again. Still smiling, Jen turned and followed the boys up the stairs.

* * *

Andrew, Jen, and Ben entered a large room, the walls filled with rows of bookshelves. There were books scattered all over the floor, along with stray sheets of paper, half of them blank, the other half covered in messy inky scribbles. The room was dark, but cozy, and it looked as if it had been occupied only moments earlier.

Ben and Jen walked further into the room, but Andrew stayed near the door, cautious. Suddenly, a small head poked out from behind a large book case in the center of the room. Another identical head popped out from the other side. Both of them were holding slingshots. Then the two small figures slowly came around the corner, recognizing Ben and Jen. They put the slingshots away and ran up to them, and that was when Andrew got a good look at them.

They were the twins Ben had mentioned earlier. They were both wearing identical blue hoodies; the only difference was the number inked on to the front of the hoodie. One of the twins had a number 3 inked on, and the other had a number 4. The twin with the 3 was a bit taller than the other twin. Andrew could also see pale blonde hair peeking out from under the hoods.

Andrew gave a small laugh when the twins hugged Ben and Jen, but it was his laugh that alerted the twins to his presence. They looked over at him and instinctively hid behind Jen and Ben.

"It's okay," Ben told them. "He's friendly."

The twins glanced up at Ben and then back at Andrew. Their eyes were wide with curiosity, and they ran over to Andrew, circling him like curious puppies. Up close, Andrew could see that they both had blue eyes, but one eye was light blue and the other was dark blue. The twin with the 3 had a dark blue right eye and a light blue left eye, and the twin with the 4 had a dark blue left eye and a light blue right eye.

After a moment, the twins seemed to determine that Andrew wasn't a threat, and they both pulled their hoods back. That was when Andrew saw that they were girls, no older than thirteen. They both had their blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail.

"Uh... hi," stammered Andrew. The twins simply stared at him for a minute before going back to circling him and occasionally poking him in the side or back.

Across the room, Ben and Jen were trying to contain their laughter.

"I think they like you," Ben said after a minute.

Andrew laughed uncomfortably. "H-how can you tell?"

"Because if they didn't like you they would have shot you already," said Jen, laughing.

Andrew quickly looked back at the twins. They had taken his jacket off of his arm and were now examining it. Andrew noticed that the shoulder that had been burnt had been repaired and sewn up with red thread.

"Uh, what are your names?" Andrew asked the twins, noticing that they hadn't spoken yet.

The twins looked up to him, and they both made a strange hand gesture before going back to the jacket. It took Andrew a minute to realize that they had been speaking sign language.

"They're mute," said Jen. "Their names are Sam and Erika. Sam is the one with the 3 on her jacket, and Erika is the one with the 4."

"Sam and Erika?" confirmed Andrew. Jen nodded.

The twins snapped their heads up at the mention of their names. They then promptly tackled Andrew, running around him and poking him.

Across the room, Jen and Ben were trying to contain another fit of laughter at the look on Andrew's face as he got assaulted by the twins. However, after a moment, Jen's laughter died down.

"Ben?" she whispered, too quiet for Andrew or the twins to hear.

"Yeah?"

"He hasn't... y'know... met my brother yet, has he...?" she asked nervously.

Ben shook his head. "He's been hiding in the shadows all day. I think Andrew might have caught a glimpse of him, but I know he hasn't seen him yet."

Jen nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "Good," she said, nervously wringing her hands together.

Ben sighed. "You know he's gonna find out some time," he said.

"I know..." said Jen, crossing her arms. "Just... not yet."

Before Ben could say anything, Andrew let out a sudden cry of pain. One of the twins had accidentally touched his injured shoulder, which was still in a sling. He jumped back and a small burst of fire shot out of his injured hand, disappearing after a second.

The twins jumped back, shocked by the fire. A moment later, they slowly came closer. Sam slowly reached forward and took Andrew's uninjured hand. She held it up and looked expectantly up at Andrew.

That was when Erika moved forward, appearing more shy than her sister. She tentatively reached up and gently pressed a finger to Andrew's temple. A small female voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

_Can you make the fire again?_

Andrew staggered backwards a bit, shocked at the sudden voice. He looked up to Jen and Ben for clarification.

"Did she just ask you something?" asked Ben.

Andrew slowly nodded.

"That's their Grace," Jen explained. "Cognitive transfer. Or mind reading, if that's easier to understand. They can sense emotions, and they have photographic memories. Sam is a bit better at reading emotions, and Erika has a better memory. They can read each others minds."

"But what about that voice?" asked Andrew.

"Like I said, cognitive transfer," said Jen. "Erika is the only one who can do that. Don't know why."

Andrew slowly nodded. He then looked back at the twins. They were looking up at him eagerly. Smiling, Andrew held up his right hand and created a small fireball right above it. The eyes of everyone else in the room grew wider. Even Ben, who had seen Andrew make fire before, was still slightly surprised. And his inner pyro was flaring up at the sight of the fire.

After a minute, Andrew let the fire die out. The twins started clapping excitedly.

"Great, I'm surrounded by pyros..." Andrew muttered to himself.

"Well, I've never seen a Grace like _that_ before," said Jen, crossing her arms, impressed. However, her eyes were slightly narrowed, as if she were starting to get suspicious about something...

Suddenly, Sam and Erika yawned, looking tired. They wandered off deeper into their maze of books, where Andrew assumed they had beds.

"I agree with them," said Jen, looking tired as she leaned against her spear.

Ben nodded, and so did Andrew. There weren't any windows nearby, but Andrew was sure that it was already dark.

"C'mon, Andrew," said Ben as he walked towards the door.

"Uh, okay..." said Andrew as he followed Ben out the door. "G'night, Jen," he said, waving at Jen as they left.

Jen nodded and watched the boys as they left. She turned to follow the twins to the room they all shared, but she stopped.

"I see you," she said to seemingly nobody.

Slowly, a small figure emerged from the shadows.

"How long have you been hiding watching?" she asked as the small figure slowly walked over to her. The small figure shrugged guiltily.

Jen smiled and hugged her brother. "Yeah, I missed you too..."

* * *

When Andrew and Ben stepped back out into the stairway, they noticed that the colored lights that illuminated the dark passages had come back on.

"Oh, I guess James fixed the generator," muttered Ben.

Andrew nodded absently. "So... where was Jen?" he asked. "You said she'd been gone for a week."

"Oh, yeah," said Ben, nodding. "She usually disappears for a couple days. I think she goes and kills drones. But she probably just wants to get away from Christopher, because she's the only one who really can."

This caught Andrew's attention. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Christopher won't let us go outside without his permission," said Ben. "He says it's too dangerous out there. Jen is the only one who's really immune to his Grace, so she can do whatever she wants."

"Hold on a second," said Andrew, confused. "What do you mean she's immune to his Grace."

"Christopher has an influence Grace," he said. "That's why he was so shocked when you interrupted him earlier."

Andrew's eyes widened. "Oh... that makes sense..." he muttered.

Ben nodded. "Don't ask me why Jen's immune, because I have no idea. If she had some kind of mental Grace or something, it would make sense, but she doesn't. She has a fighting Grace."

Andrew nodded. "I kind of assumed that from the way she took Josh down..."

Ben nodded, and he stopped walking as they came up to a room at the end of the hallway they had been in earlier. Ben opened the door to reveal a darkened room three beds in it; one of them was a single bed and the other was a bunk bed. The room was too dark for Andrew to see the drawings hanging on the wall.

Ben gestured to the single bed. "There's yours," he said to Andrew. Without waiting for Andrew to respond, he climbed up into the top bunk and was asleep almost instantly.

Slowly, Andrew set his jacket and his shoulder bag on the floor next to his bed. He then laid down, careful not to open the wound on his shoulder again. He lay staring up at the ceiling for a minute before starting to feel tired. Only a minute later, he was asleep...

* * *

_A/N: Yeah... nothing terribly interesting. Just a bit of background info and whatnot... and more characters and Graces. So... you've met all of the Gracepunks... except one... MUAHAHAHA! ;)_

_I'll try and update again soon!_


	5. Ink and Blood

_A/N: We are in the middle of a hurricane right now! Perfect time to write! Muahahahaha!_

* * *

**Gracepunk**

Andrew woke up with a gasp. Judging by the darkness, it was still late at night. The reason he had woken up was because he had rolled over in his sleep, the action aggravating his wounded shoulder and the pain waking him up.

Sighing in frustration, Andrew rolled over on his back, hoping that he wouldn't move again before morning. As he drifted back into sleep, he heard Ben snoring across the room. But there was something else that his tired mind couldn't quite place. Scratching? The sound of paper crinkling? Andrew tiredly let his head roll to his right where the sounds seemed to be coming from.

At first he saw nothing, but then, right before he fell back asleep, his tired eyes just barely managed to see a small figure sitting hunched over in the corner. And then he fell asleep.

* * *

When Andrew woke up the next morning, he had completely forgotten about seeing the strange figure.

Slowly sitting up, he rubbed all of the sleep residue out of his eyes and looked around, forgetting where he was for a minute. However, after he saw Ben sitting up across the room, he remembered.

Across the room, Ben noticed that Andrew was awake. "Good to see you made it through the night," said Ben as he swung himself off of the top bunk.

"What?!" exclaimed Andrew, his eyes widening at Ben's comment.

Ben laughed at Andrew's expression. "I was kidding," he said.

"Oh..." muttered Andrew quietly, casting his eyes down.

"So how's your shoulder?" asked Ben as he picked his jacket up off the floor and pulled it on.

Andrew gave a small shrug, but he winced as the action sent a sharp stab of pain through his shoulder. Ben took notice of this.

"Still hurts?"

"Just a bit," said Andrew, swinging his legs over the side of his bed and standing. However, as he stood, he felt slightly nauseated and dizzy as his sore, wounded arm throbbed with pain. Ben saw this and gently pushed him back into a sitting position.

"Better sit down before you throw up," said Ben as he untied the sling holding Andrew's arm. "I don't wanna have to clean that up..."

Andrew rolled his eyes before looking down at his bandaged shoulder. He could see blood soaking through the bandaged. Just the sight of blood made his stomach churn.

When Ben saw the blood, he turned and walked back across the room, picking up a small black shoulder bag. He rummaged around inside for a minute before pulling out a small pair of scissors. He walked back across the room to Andrew and carefully cut the bandages away.

Andrew took one glance at the deep, bloody wound on his shoulder before turning away, feeling sick. Ben's reaction was different, however.

"Well, that's a relief," said Ben as he examined the wound.

Andrew glanced sidelong at Ben. "What are you talking about?"

"Your infection's gone," said Ben as he gently placed his hand over the wound. Andrew winced, but the pain instantly disappeared.

"Just give me a minute," said Ben, concentrating on the wound on Andrew's shoulder. "Deep wounds like this usually take a bit longer to heal..."

Sighing, Andrew glanced around the room as Ben healed him. Now that the room was light, Andrew could see what he had missed the night before: the drawings. Like the room downstairs, there were ink-drawn pictures all over the walls. The drawings varied between the three familiar looking symbols and almost everything else, including pictures of abstract things like buildings burning and things falling into an abyss and faceless figures lying on the ground with inky blood surrounding them. One of the pictures even depicted a human burning to death. Andrew also noticed that some of the more elaborate pictures had red bloodstains on them...

Several of the pictures, ink and blood, looked incredibly fresh. As if the blood and the ink was still drying.

Andrew was so focused on the pictures that he didn't even notice that his shoulder stopped hurting. He did notice, however, when Ben poked him none too gently in the side.

"Andrew, focus," he said. Andrew dragged his eyes away from the drawing and looked back at Ben. That was when he noticed that his shoulder didn't hurt and he didn't feel dizzy or sick. Looking down, he saw that his shoulder was mostly healed. Only a long red scar remained where the wound had been.

"Thanks..." muttered Andrew, his gaze returning to the drawings. "So... what are those?" he asked.

"Nothing you should be concerned about," said Ben, his voice strained as if he were hiding something.

Before Andrew could ask any more questions, however, there was a knock on the door.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Ben called nonchalantly.

The door opened and Jen poked her head through. "Andrew, the twins want to know your last name."

Andrew could only stare for a minute before cautiously asking "Why...?"

Jen shrugged. "They said they found something, and that you should come as soon as possible."

"Okay," said Andrew, standing up and picking up his jacket. Jen nodded and she closed the door.

"Mind if I come?" asked Ben.

Andrew shrugged as he pulled on his jacket. "Not really my choice, is it? Seeing as you're gonna come whether I want you to or not..."

Ben smiled. "Excellent." He then went to the door and pulled it open, revealing Jen, who was waiting in the hallway.

"Follow me, boys," she said, gesturing for Ben and Andrew to follow her as she walked towards the stairs to Sam and Erika's library. Ben walked out the door, and Andrew started to follow, but he stopped. He glanced quickly around the room one more time before picking his shoulder bag up off the floor and throwing it across his shoulder. He still felt slightly paranoid, and he didn't want to leave his bag just lying on the floor. Then he quickly followed after Ben and Jen, but not before taking one last look around the room. That was when he noticed that the lower bunk bed looked slightly messed up, as if someone had been sleeping in it.

He didn't have time to think about what that meant, however, because Ben called his name from down the hall, and he quickly left the room.

* * *

The twins' library looked different in the light. Instead of looking gloomy and ominous like it had the night before, it seemed warm and even cozy. Andrew could see specks of dust floating through the beams of sunlight that streamed through the small dirty windows high up on the walls.

Suddenly, the twins appeared out of nowhere and pulled Andrew deeper into their library, with Ben and Jen following close behind. After a minute, they reached a large wooden table that had hundreds of newspapers spread out over it. One of the twins, Sam, signed something while Erika quickly sifted through the papers. Andrew looked to either Jen or Ben to translate.

"She said that there was something about you that seemed familiar," translated Jen.

Sam nodded, then signed something again, looking expectantly at Andrew.

"They want to know your last name," Ben translated.

"Uh, Sparks. Andrew Sparks," said Andrew with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Behind him, Ben and Jen both gasped, their eyes widening. They looked at each other, their eyes wide with surprise and fear.

"You don't think-" Ben started to whisper, but Jen quickly slapped her hand over his mouth to keep him from continuing and alerting Andrew, who was watching the twins.

Sam and Erika's reactions were similar to Ben and Jen's but for different reasons. They looked at each other nervously for a moment before Erika handed Sam a clipping from one of the newspapers. Sam then slowly walked forward and handed the clipping to Andrew, signing something as she did.

"They want to know if that's you," said Jen, stepping a bit closer to try and see what Sam had handed him.

Andrew couldn't speak. All he could do was slowly nod.

"Yeah..." he finally managed to choke out. "That's me..."

The newspaper clipping was about a car accident that had happened earlier that January. It had happened only a week before the bombings. The paper described the accident involving the Sparks family. It described how their car lost control and flipped. The driver of the car, Andrew's father, had been speeding down an icy back road, a road that Andrew knew led out of the city.

The paper said that everyone in the car had been killed. Andrew's parents, his sister Maria... and Andrew himself.

"This... this can't be right..." muttered Andrew. However, as he said it, he stumbled backwards and collapsed in a chair that Erika quickly put behind him. "I-it says I'm... but... w-what about..."

Andrew stopped talking and started taking deep breaths, feeling as though he were about to have an asthma attack. He could feel his eyes watering as the memory surged back...

* * *

_It was late at night. Snow had been falling all day, and Andrew was tired from chasing his thirteen year old sister through it. He was sitting in his room with Maria. They were playing their favorite game, where Maria would create a small ball of water using her Grace that let her control water. She would toss the water up into the air, and Andrew would try and turn it to steam with a fireball. The scorch marks on his walls signified all the times he had missed the target. _

_Downstairs, he heard the phone ring, but he didn't think much of it. However, a few minutes later, his mother, Amelia Sparks, threw the door open and ran into the room, looking terrified._

"_Kids, pack up everything valuable," she said frantically._

"_What's wrong, Mom?" asked Maria._

"_Your father and I will explain it in the car, now pack everything," she exclaimed. "We need to leave as soon as possible." Then she turned and ran back out the door._

_Andrew and Maria glanced at each other before quickly jumping to their feet and grabbing their bags. It took Andrew only a few minutes to pack up everything of value to him, and when he had finished, he ran into his sister's room and helped her pack. Then they both carried their things downstairs, where their parents were waiting._

_Without a word, their mother knelt down in front of them while their father took their things out to the car._

"_Andrew, Maria... listen..." said Amelia. "We're leaving... and we won't be coming back..."_

"_What happened?" asked Andrew. "Where are we going?"_

"_I'll explain in the car," said Amelia. "Now we have to go..."_

_Before they could protest, they were hurriedly ushered through the door and into the car. The second the doors were closed, they sped off._

_After a few minutes, Andrew spoke up from the back seat. "Can you tell us what's happening?"_

"_We need to get out of this city," said Amelia, turning to look at her children, her bright blue eyes glazed with tears. "Actually... it's you two that need to get out of the city."_

"_Why us...?" asked Maria cautiously._

"_Because you're Graced..." said Amelia quietly._

_Andrew and Maria glanced at each other before turning their eyes back to their mother._

"_How do you know?" asked Andrew. "Who told you that we should leave...?"_

"_We were... informed..." said Amelia carefully._

"_By who?" asked Andrew. "Whoever was on the phone?" _

_Amelia's silence was the only answer that Andrew needed._

"_Mom... who was on the phone...?"_

_Amelia sighed and opened her mouth to speak, but right at that moment, the car lurched and skidded off the road. Andrew remembered throwing his arms over Maria to try and protect her. Then there was nothing but screams, then the cold, and then darkness._

* * *

_And then I woke up in a destroyed hospital..._ thought Andrew. _But I didn't die... how did I not die...?_

Slowly, Andrew handed the newspaper clipping back to Erika. Or was it Sam? He didn't care at the moment.

"Andrew...?" said Jen quietly. "Are you okay...?"

"I'm fine..." Andrew muttered quietly, blinking back tears. "Y'know, as fine as someone can be when they just find out that the rest of their family is dead..."

Sighing, Jen slowly walked forward and knelt down next to Andrew.

"It's okay," she said. "We all know how you feel..."

Andrew slowly looked up to meet her eyes. "Y-you do...?" he gulped.

Jen nodded, her blue and gray eyes filled with sympathy. "Both of my parents are dead... Ben's parents and his twin are gone... Sam and Erika used to be triplets... Josh used to have three sisters, Christopher's sister is gone, James used to have two kids... We've all lost someone..."

Slowly, Andrew nodded a bit. It at least helped to know that he wasn't alone.

Smiling slightly, Jen grabbed Andrew's arm and pulled him to his feet. When he stood up, however, his bag slid off of his shoulder and fell to the ground. When it hit the ground, the latch popped open and the small wooden box Andrew had found earlier fell out. Before he had a chance to grab it, Sam darted forward and snatched it up before running back across the room to her twin.

"Hey!" exclaimed Andrew as he quickly picked up his bag.

The twins ignored him. They were busy looking over the strange box, intrigued by the key hole and the tag with the number _9_ on it. But then they noticed something else...

Taking the box in her hands, Sam slowly walked back over to Andrew. She held the box out for him to take, but she held it upside-down so that Andrew could see the bottom. He was surprised to see that there was something engraved on the bottom of the box.

_Find the Keeper..._

Andrew stared at the sentence for a moment before noticing that there was something else. Engraved in the bottom corner were the same three symbols.

Slowly, Andrew handed the box back to the twins and pointed to the symbols. "Any idea what those are...?"

When the twins saw the symbols, their eyes widened and they quickly handed the box to Jen, who took one look at the sentence and the symbols before going completely pale.

"N-no idea..." she stammered, quickly handing the box to Ben.

When Ben saw the symbols, his eye widened, but instead of thinking of the drawings, something else came to mind.

"These symbols kind of look like the ones on your necklace, Andrew," he said, handing the box to Andrew.

"Really?" asked Andrew, pulling the pendant out from under his shirt. He looked closely at it and saw that there _were_ symbols encrypted in the pendant. And when he compared it to the symbols on the box, he saw that they were identical, and they also matched the symbols in the drawings downstairs.

Curious, Andrew glanced up just in time to see Erika finish signing something.

"No!" Jen exclaimed firmly.

Andrew looked at her in surprise. "What is it?" he asked.

Jen brushed Andrew's question off with a wave of her hand before turning back to the twins.

"We can't!" she exclaimed.

Sam and Erika looked at each other before quickly and simultaneously signing something.

"But..." Jen stopped with an exasperated sigh. She looked at Ben, but he only shrugged helplessly.

"He was gonna see him eventually..." said Ben quietly.

"Fine..." said Jen, sighing and shaking her head.

Andrew looked back and forth between Ben and Jen, hopelessly confused. "So... what's going on...?"

"We are taking you to see my brother," said Jen carefully. "C'mon..." Then she walked back out the door. Ben could only shrug at Andrew before following her. Sighing, Andrew put the box back in his bag and tucked the necklace back into his shirt before following after Ben and Jen.

The second they were gone, the twins turned to each other.

_His last name..._ said Sam. _Do you think...?_

Erika only shrugged. _What are the odds? Sparks isn't the most common last name in the world..._ But then she stopped as if she suddenly thought of something.

_But I do remember seeing it somewhere else..._

_Where?_ Sam asked, following Erika as she ran off deeper into their library.

_Here!_ Erika exclaimed, reaching behind a large bookshelf and pulling out a large leather-bound book. She flipped through the pages for a moment before stopping with an audible gasp.

_What is it?_ Sam asked.

_I forgot! The page isn't here,_ said Erika, running her hands through her hair in frustration.

_Where is it?_ asked Sam.

_It's back in the Library,_ said Erika, looking at her sister. _I left it last time we were there..._

All Sam could do was shrug. _Then I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens..._

* * *

Jen quickly led the way down the stairs, walking so fast that Ben and Andrew nearly tripped trying to keep up with her.

"What's going on?" Andrew whispered to Ben.

"I'd rather just let Jen explain," Ben whispered back.

"You know I can hear every word you're saying," said Jen without turning around. Before Andrew or Ben had a chance to defend themselves, they reached the bottom of the stairs that led to the large throne room.

Looking around, Andrew saw that the room seemed deserted. Before he had a chance to wonder where the others were, however, Jen led them to the small dark alcove where Andrew had seen the drawings the previous day. When they entered, however, they saw that the room was deserted. However, there was a bottle of spilled ink on the floor that was still wet. There was also something else. Blood. Only minutes old.

Then Jen started snarling, her fists clenched with rage.

"Josh..." she growled quietly. Then she quickly turned to face Ben and Andrew. "Ben, do you think you can handle everything? I have to find Josh and kick his ass into next week."

Before Ben could say anything, she stormed out of the room, only to nearly run over James.

"Jen, what's the r-"

Jen cut James off with a sharp glare. "Where is he?" she demanded.

"Who? Josh?" stammered James, glancing around nervously. "Haven't seen him in a few hours..."

"You're lying," growled Jen. "Now what happened?"

James gulped, but he managed to keep a forced smile on his face. "N-nothing happened! Everything is smashing! Smashing!"

Jen's glare didn't falter.

After a minute, James' smile faltered and he sighed, looking at the ground. "He's hiding in the watchtower."

Jen didn't wait another second. She stormed up the stairs, screaming obscenities at Josh as she ran.

"Wait!" exclaimed James, chasing after her. "Don't break the telescope again! I just repaired it!"

Ben and Andrew still stood by the stairs, a bit surprised. After a minute, however, Ben shook off his shock and turned to Andrew.

"We better go," he said.

"Where...?" asked Andrew cautiously.

"Upstairs," said Ben vaguely.

Andrew rolled his eyes in frustration at the lack of details, but he followed Ben anyways.

They ascended the stairs in silence. Ben led the way back to their room. Andrew noticed that the door was closed, even though he had been sure he had left it open...

Then he heard the humming. It was the same humming that he had heard the night before, and it still gave him chills.

"Okay..." Ben said quietly to Andrew, "just... please don't freak out."

Andrew took a half step back. "What are you talking about...?" he asked slowly.

Ben opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't seem to find the right words. Finally, he stopped and simply turned to the door. He held up his fist to knock on the door, but an eerie voice from the other side of the door stopped him.

"I don't see why you bother knocking," said the voice. "The door is never locked..."

Ben sighed and looked at the ground. "You know it freaks people out when you do that..."

"Which is why I continue to do it..."

Ben glanced at Andrew before slowly opening the door and stepping inside. Andrew followed him.

The room was much darker than it had been earlier. As soon as Andrew stepped inside, he heard the same scratching noise that he had heard the night before. Then he saw where it was coming from.

The same dark figure from the night before was sitting hunched over in the corner of the room. The figure looked up at them and slowly stood up.

And then the figure stepped forward into the light.

Andrew was actually surprised. The dark, threatening figure turned out to be a child, about the same age as the twins. He was small, only coming up to Andrew's shoulder. The kid had inky black hair, pale skin, and he looked dangerously thin to the point of being emaciated. Andrew could tell just by the way his ink-splattered black and white striped sweater hung off of his narrow shoulders. He looked like he had never gotten a good night's sleep in his entire life, and just to add to his ragged appearance, he was holding a bloody cloth which he would use to stem the flow of blood dripping from his broken nose; Andrew assumed that Josh had caused that particular injury, which was why Jen had been so livid. The ink, however, let Andrew know who drew the pictures on the wall...

The kid was also wearing glasses. Andrew took notice of the glasses because the left lens was larger than the right one. Behind the glasses, the kid had dark gray eyes. That also caught Andrew off guard: the fact that the kid's eyes were the same color. He wasn't Graced.

The kid slowly tilted his head to the side as if he were examining Andrew. He had a tight grip on something that was hanging around his neck on a black chain, but in the uncertain light, Andrew couldn't tell what it was.

At that moment, Ben cleared his throat awkwardly. "I uh... I guess I'd better introduce you guys," he said, turning to the small boy. "This is-"

"I already know who he is," said the boy nonchalantly.

"Of course you do..." said Ben as he turned to Andrew.

"Andrew, this is Caleb," he said, gesturing to the small boy.

Andrew nodded awkwardly. "Nice to meet you..." he said.

"Did you take my strawberries?" asked the boy, Caleb.

"What?"

"Not important!" exclaimed Ben.

"Where's Jen?" asked Caleb.

"Beating the snot out of Josh," said Ben with a small shrug.

"How... how did she know what happened?" he asked, looking slightly nervous.

"You left a trail of blood all the way back up here," said Ben. "Speaking of which..." He slowly reached out, but Caleb jumped back out of his reach.

"I'm fine, just leave it," said Caleb, slowly moving back towards the corner of the room.

"C'mon, just hold still!" exclaimed Ben, lunging at Caleb. "What is the matter with you?!"

Andrew watched curiously as Ben tackled Caleb to the ground. They had obviously done this before.

After a few minutes, Ben managed to get Caleb to hold still so that he could heal his nose. Once it was healed, they both stood up and brushed themselves off with as much dignity as they could.

"What is with you and medical help...?" muttered Ben.

Caleb only shrugged as he wiped the blood off of his face.

Ben glanced at Andrew apologetically. "Sorry..." he muttered. But then he noticed that Andrew wasn't looking at him. He was looking wide-eyed at Caleb.

"Andrew...?" Then Ben followed his line of sight, and he also gasped. During the little skirmish, Caleb's glasses had fallen off.

And his real eye color was revealed.

Caleb seemed to realize that something wasn't right, and he looked up at Ben and Andrew, his bright green left eye and his bright purple right eye wide. Then he saw his glasses laying on the ground.

"Oh..." he muttered. "Whoops."

"Y-you... you..." stammered Andrew.

"I know, I know," said Caleb hurriedly. He then shot a glare at Ben. "I thought you told him already."

Ben only shrugged helplessly. "I had no idea how to tell him that you're a Seer!"

"B-but I thought..." Andrew stammered, looking quickly back and forth between Ben and Caleb. "I thought Seers were-"

"Extinct?" Caleb finished for him.

Andrew could only nod.

"Yeah, I thought you'd freak out..." said Caleb, bending over and picking up his glasses. "That's why I was wearing these," he said, handing the glasses to Andrew. "Those glasses make your eyes look gray so you can pass off as Ungraced."

Andrew, who had started to calm down from the shock of seeing someone with an extinct Grace, held up the glasses. Looking through them, he could see that they didn't mess with his vision, but when he glanced in the mirror, he saw that his eyes looked gray.

"Okay... these are actually really cool..." he said, handing the glasses back to Caleb. "Where did you get those?"

Caleb only gave a small shrug as he folded up the glasses and put them in his pocket. "Old family friend. I would tell you who, but he's already dead."

"Oh..." muttered Andrew. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Caleb cut him off.

"So why are you here?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Andrew, remembering his cause for coming. He started to reach into his bag, but a look from Ben stopped him. He didn't know what it was, but the way Ben's eye widened and his face got pale stopped him from pulling out the box. Instead, he pulled the necklace out from under his shirt. When Caleb saw it, his eyes widened and he slowly moved forward, taking the pendant in his ink-stained hands. Andrew thought he heard him say something, but he couldn't be sure what.

"Do you... do you know what it is?" asked Ben, looking over Caleb's shoulder to get a better look at the pendant.

Slowly, Caleb shook his head, no.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ben. "You draw it all the time!"

Caleb glanced over his shoulder at Ben. "You really think I remember those visions?"

"... point taken."

Caleb went back to looking at the pendant, and that was when a strange look came over his eyes. He had a distant look in his eyes, but at the same time he seemed to be looking at something that they couldn't see.

"The Source..." he muttered.

"What?" asked Andrew.

Caleb looked up at him and slowly backed away, moving back towards his corner. "T-the Source... go back..."

"Go back to where?" asked Ben, taking a half-step away from Caleb.

"The Source..." said Caleb quietly, shaking his head a bit. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he was back to normal. Or... as normal as he could be.

"Caleb...?" said Ben to get Caleb's attention. "I know I've asked this before, but... what's the Source...?"

Caleb only tilted his head to the side as if confused. A moment later, instead of answering the question, he snapped his gaze back to Andrew.

"Where did you come from anyways...?" asked Caleb, staring Andrew down with his hauntingly knowing eyes.

"Well... I've kinda been-" Andrew started to explain, but Caleb cut him off.

"You were in a coma for nine months, I know," said Caleb hurriedly, getting more anxious as he spoke. "But where did you wake up?!"

Andrew didn't hear his question. "_Nine_ months?!" he exclaimed. "I've been in a coma for NINE MONTHS!"

Ben only groaned. "Thanks, Caleb... We just got him to calm down."

Caleb seemed to not take notice of Andrew's impending panic attack. "_Where_ did you wake up?"

"A-a hospital..." Andrew managed to stammer out.

The effect on Caleb was immediate. He staggered back as if he had been physically hit. Before Ben or Andrew could ask what was wrong, Caleb lunged forward and grabbed Andrew's right wrist, yanking his arm out. He then pulled a long thin dagger out of nowhere and brought it down on Andrew's exposed wrist.

"Wait!" shouted Ben.

_CRACK!_

Instead of ripping Andrew's good arm open, the dagger connected with something metallic sounding in the air right above Andrew's wrist. Caleb jerked the dagger back and held it up so the others could see. On the end of the dagger, something invisible was throwing off sparks. A moment later, it became visible.

It was a machine; it looked like a small mechanical spider, about the size of a golf ball. The spider's legs were still twitching, but it's glowing red eyes had already turned black. Caleb's knife had gone right through the center of its mechanical body.

Ben and Andrew – who was too curious to continue having a panic attack – could only stare at the strange mechanical spider.

"What... what is that...?" asked Ben, taking a step closer to the spider.

"Spider-bot," said Caleb. "They're invisible unless you know what to look for. They're all over hospitals, even the destroyed ones. Old hospitals used to use them to keep track of patients, but..."

Andrew narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "But what...?" he asked, absently rubbing his wrist where the spider-bot had been.

Caleb lowered his eyes, looking only at his bare feet. "A... a few years go a bunch of them got stolen by Gracebeasts..."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Ben, his eye widening.

"Yeah, we should probably destroy it..." said Caleb, inspecting the spider-bot, thinking of the best way to destroy it.

"I can help with that..." said Andrew.

Ben and Caleb looked up at him.

"How?" asked Caleb.

Instead of explaining, Andrew simply held out his hand. Caleb shook the spider off of the knife and handed it to Andrew.

"Watch this," said Andrew, taking a step back and holding the spider-bot at arms length.

Then the spider spontaneously combusted. Andrew watched it burn for a moment before looking up at Ben and Caleb. They were both staring wide-eyed at the fire.

"Great..." Andrew muttered. "I'm sharing a room with two pyros."

After a minute, the spider-bot stopped burning. All that was left was a small puddle of molten metal in the palm of Andrew's hand.

"Well..." said Caleb, "I hope that stops any Gracebeasts from finding us..."

Little did any of them know, Warren was sitting in a tree outside, waiting for the right moment to attack.

And he didn't have long to wait.

* * *

_A/N: *freaks the crap out * You guys FINALLY get to meet 6! Aaaaaaaaaaand there ya go. You get to learn a bit more about Andrew's past. Now I am going to go sleep._

_Also, I was planning on making Ben break the fourth wall by saying something like: "Well we wanna keep the readers on their toes, now don't we..." but instead I made James say "Smashing." You're welcome._


	6. Burning

_A/N: Okay, new chapter. I should probably be working on my other stories... I'll do it eventually._

_Anyways, this is the beginning of part two. I forgot to say last chapter, but I'm splitting each story into three parts. Part one was called "To Find Us" and it ended last chapter. Now we're onto part two._

_HERE WE GO!_

* * *

**Gracepunk**

**Part Two: To Hunt Us**

It had been a rough week for Warren. The first night he spent in the tree near the abandoned church was freezing cold, and because his skinny body had no insulation from the cold, he was forced to wrap himself in his wings to stay warm. At around midnight, a wickedly cold wind started blowing, nearly knocking Warren out of the tree.

He didn't know how he made it through the night without getting hypothermia or falling out of the tree and breaking something. However, the next morning he woke up with a fever.

It was his pride that kept him from returning to the prison to get healed. He was already the outcast among the other Gracebeasts, and if he came back empty-handed and sick, he would remain an outcast. That was why he made the decision to stay.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to stay up in the tree, Warren located a nearby spider-bot – they were all over the place now, and most of them were inactive – and set it down on a tree branch so that it had a clear view of the church. He then activated it with a small device he kept in his pocket, and he turned on the camera. Then, after making sure the church was visible on the screen connected to the camera, he turned and flew off deeper into the forest.

After only a minute of flying, he came across a small cave and dizzily crash-landed next to it. The cave was small, but it was dry, and it offered shelter from the cold and the wind. Even better, it was only a ten minute walk, or a one minute flight, away from the church. That way, Warren would be able to keep an eye on the Gracelings without killing himself.

After finding a bit of firewood, which wasn't hard due to the lack of rain for the past month, Warren crawled down into the shallow cave and made a small fire. He didn't have to worry about the smoke because of the cave's sloped ceiling. Also, if the smoke got too thick, Warren had a backup plan.

He had never told anybody, but he knew it was true: he had two Graces. His weightless Grace was the one given to him through experiments, but his second Grace, the one he was born with, was the ability to control wind. He had discovered the ability when he was young, and it was the only reason he was able to fly so well.

He had even tried to use his Grace to run away before.

It never worked. The Gracebeasts' web of spies was too complex for him to get away. He had tried many times before, but they would always manage to find him and bring him back. After each of his escape attempts, he would be brought back to the Baron, who would warn him never to run away again. But he never suffered any consequences. Not until his last escape attempt five years ago, when he was thirteen. He had managed to get as far away as the Sister City before Rogue caught him and dragged him back to the Factory. However, when Rogue brought him to the Baron, the Baron didn't say anything. He simply nodded to Rogue, who dragged Warren into the Cold Room and tortured him until he swore to never try and escape again.

Warren shuddered at the memory.

As he quickly sparked a fire – something else he was good at – he used his wind Grace to push the smoke out of the cave, knowing that it would filter through the trees and disappear before it became visible.

After a few minutes, the cave warmed up to a comfortable temperature, and Warren curled up in his wings. As he did, however, he caught a glimpse of the thin metal bracelet around his ankle. That bracelet served as another reminder of why he couldn't run away. Inside that bracelet was a tracking device that monitored his location along with his heartbeat and temperature. He was sure that Felix was keeping an eye on him back at the prison...

Sighing, Warren wrapped his wings around his thin frame tighter to at least use the heat from his fever to stay warm. A few minutes later, he fell asleep.

The rest of the week he spent recovering from his fever. He had no food or medicine, but he did manage to find a small freshwater stream nearby that he could get water from. After five days, his fever finally broke, but since he didn't have any food, he had no real way of recovering his strength.

Then, on the seventh day, something happened.

It was late in the afternoon, and because it was the middle of October, that meant it was already nearly dark. Warren had been out looking for food, seeing as it had been a week since he had eaten anything, and he felt like he would need his strength soon. He hadn't been successful, but when he returned to his cave, he saw something...

Warren had left his device connected to the spider-bot sitting on the floor of the cave. There was a small green blinking light on the side, signaling that the spider-bot had recorded something.

Warren rushed over to the device and pressed a button that would replay the video. The screen went black for a moment before showing the video. It showed three figures leaving the cathedral and heading off towards the Sister City. Warren recognized the taller figure to be 7, which is what he called her because he didn't know her name. She was famous among the Gracebeasts as the one Graceling that hunted drones for sport.

The other two figures were much smaller. Warren couldn't see their faces because of their blue hoodies, but he saw that they stayed close to 7. He couldn't see their numbers, and he didn't recognize them. However, he could see that all of them were armed, 7 with her spear and the smaller ones with slingshots.

Warren looked at the time on the tape and saw that the video had been recorded early this morning. There was no second video of them returning, so either the spider-bot had malfunctioned, or they weren't back yet. Warren knew this would be his only chance for a long time, and he couldn't afford to waste it.

Without another thought, Warren kicked out his fire, strapped his wings to his chest and his harpoon launcher to his back, put on his helmet, picked up his device, and ran out of the cave as fast as his long skinny legs could take him. The second he was in a clearing, he spread his wings and took off towards the cathedral.

Seeing as it had been a week since he last flew, he had a bit of trouble at first. That, coupled with his lack of strength, made for a very shaky flight. But at least the wind was in his favor. It was always in his favor.

After a minute of flying, the cathedral came into view. Warren clumsily crash-landed in the tree he had spent the first night in. From there, he could see figures moving in the upper windows. Then he looked a bit higher. He could see an old bell tower, but that wouldn't be enough. He needed something else.

Then he saw it.

One floor above the floor with the moving figures, he could see narrow windows. Through those windows, he could see books. And as much as he hated it, he had a job to do.

Reaching into a small pouch hanging on his belt, Warren pulled out what looked like a short arrow with a dark red sphere where the arrowhead should be. There were also feathers on the end to stabilize it in flight.

Warren carefully loaded the "arrow" into the spring-loaded harpoon launcher strapped to his left arm. Normally he would have used his bow, but he didn't bring it. Also, he wasn't sure he was strong enough to pull the bow back to full power. That was the benefit of using his harpoon launcher. All he had to do was point and pull the trigger.

Taking a deep breath, Warren pressed a small red button on the side of the arrow. The button turned green, signaling that the arrow was charged. Taking another deep breath to stop the twitch in his hand that always seemed to appear right before he pulled a trigger, Warren carefully aimed at the small window closest to the center. He only had one shot, and the failing light didn't help.

Finally, after a minute, he was certain his aim was perfect. Slowly, the wind stopped blowing. Then Warren pulled the trigger.

The arrow sailed through the air and smashed through the small window, flying inside of the building. A moment later, there was a flash of white and a loud explosion.

And then the fire started.

* * *

**Earlier**

Andrew's week had been much different. He had spent it regaining his strength and getting to know the other Gracelings a bit better. He had also managed to regain a bit of weight, but even then he was still dangerously malnourished and underweight.

Over the course of the week, he managed to find out more about the others. First of all, he found out that they didn't call themselves Gracelings, they called themselves Gracepunks. Apparently Christopher had come up with the name. That was about all he found out about Christopher, however, other than the fact that he used to have two sisters – both of them dead – and he had a bit of a drinking problem when it came to whiskey.

Andrew didn't really learn much about Caleb either. In fact, the boy was a bit of a mystery to everybody except Jen. The only thing Andrew knew for certain about him was that he was the last Seer alive, and the only way he knew that was because of the boy's bright purple eye, which marked him as a Seer. Other than that, Caleb was still a bit of a shadow. Andrew did, however, find out after a few days what Caleb had been wearing on the chain around his neck: a large dark key. He only caught a glimpse of it while Caleb had been drawing, using gloves with an ink nib on the end of each finger.

After a while, Andrew kinda gave up on trying to learn more about Caleb, knowing that he would learn what he needed to when he needed to.

Ben was a completely different story. He was an open book, and by the end of the week, Andrew practically knew his life story. The only thing Ben refused to tell Andrew about was how he met Jen and Caleb. He told Andrew that he and his twin, Henry, had found them five years before the bombings, and they had taken them in. He told him that they had escaped from something, but he wouldn't tell Andrew what. All he told him was that they had escaped from something that scarred them for life. Afterward, Andrew wasn't sure he wanted to know.

James acted the same way towards Andrew as Ben did. Andrew learned that James used to have two kids, a Graced son named Simon, and an ungraced daughter named Claire, and they were both killed five years ago by a mostly Ungraced mob. He also learned that James and Christopher were cousins, which explained their hostility towards one another.

Speaking of hostility, Andrew managed to get a surprisingly good deal out of Josh. He had stumbled upon Josh sitting in a corner crying one night, suffering from withdraw from Magnet, which was the drug he always used. Apparently someone had thrown his supply of the drug into the large generator downstairs, destroying the supply in a massive burst of flame. Not a moment after he found Josh, Andrew found himself being hugged in the same way that a small frightened child would hug a stuffed teddy bear. While Andrew tried to squirm out of Josh's bear hug before all of his ribs were broken, Josh went off on a rant about how the only reason he started using drugs was because he couldn't handle the depression he developed after watching his three younger sisters die right in front of him. Andrew listened to his entire story even though one of his lungs collapsed, and when Josh fell asleep, Andrew was able to escape and get healed.

The twins were a different matter. Andrew barely saw them after those first few days, but he learned a lot about them from Ben. He learned that they couldn't talk because of a genetic disease, and not because of an accident or anything traumatic. He did learn, however, that they used to be triplets. Jen had told him that earlier, but she hadn't gone into detail. Ben explained to him that Sam and Erika's sister was named Ashley, and she had been ungraced. She, like Josh's sisters and James's children, had been killed by an Ungraced mob about five years ago, when the Ungraced turned against the Graced and the Gracebeasts began their rise to power.

And then there was Jen. Andrew had no idea what to do or how to approach her. It wasn't as if she were cold and distant; in fact, she seemed to be trying to make friends with Andrew too. He just felt too awkward when he talked to her, and they both knew it. Jen even found it kind of funny. After a few days, however, Andrew's confidence slowly trickled back and he was eventually able to talk to her without stuttering.

In fact, on the morning of the seventh day, Andrew was thinking of what he could say to Jen to spark a conversation when she walked in. It was early in the morning, so Andrew was still lying in bed, Caleb was sitting in the corner drawing as usual, and Ben was half asleep.

"Hey boys," said Jen as she poked her head in through their door.

"Morning," said Andrew, sitting up. Caleb nodded, and Ben only responded after Andrew threw a pillow at his face.

"What the-" exclaimed Ben, waking up so suddenly that he nearly fell out of his bed. When he saw Jen, however, he calmed down and tiredly asked, "What do you want?"

"We're completely out of food, so I'm making a run to the City," said Jen, stepping inside and leaning on the only portion of the wall that wasn't covered in Caleb's clairvoyant drawings. "You boys need anything?"

Andrew only shrugged and looked at Ben, who looked to be thinking about something.

"Yeah," he said, "see if you can find me another bottle of morphine. I'm all out." With that, he cast a sidelong glare at Caleb, who only forced an innocent smile and went back to drawing.

"I'll do my best," laughed Jen. Then she looked at Andrew and Caleb. "You boys need anything other than food?"

"I'm good," said Andrew, shaking his head.

"Caleb?"

The young Seer started to say something, but he froze, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open as if the words had gotten caught in his throat. Suddenly, he stood up and ran over to his bed, lifting the mattress and sifting through the many ink-stained papers that were hidden there.

"Here!" he exclaimed, finding what he was looking for. He carefully picked up one of the pieces of paper, holding it delicately between his ink nib fingers. He then rushed over and handed the paper to Jen.

"What's this?" she asked, seeing that the paper held not a drawing but a list.

"Just trust me..." he said quietly, slowly slinking back into his corner, his narrow shoulders hunched.

"Okay..." said Jen uncertainly as she folded up the list and put it in her pocked. Then she turned back to Ben and Andrew. "I'm taking the twins with me. We should be back by sunset."

Ben and Andrew nodded, and then Jen was gone.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was hanging low on the horizon. Everybody was in a bad mood from not having any food all day... well, everybody except Caleb, who was used to going long periods of time without food, seeing as his Grace ruined his appetite along with taking away his ability to sleep for very long.

At the moment, Andrew, Ben, and Caleb were all in their room, hoping to get a moment's peace from the vicious argument taking place downstairs between Christopher, James, and Josh. Well, the argument was mainly between Christopher and James; Josh was just there to stop them from hurting each other.

Andrew and Ben were sitting on Andrew's bed, tiredly playing cards, but Caleb seemed nervous. He was pacing back and forth along the length of the room, glancing out the window every time he passed it. He was more hunched over than usual, and he was wringing his bony hands together. He also had a shoulder bag thrown across his back, and Andrew could hear glass bottles clinking together and paper crinkling.

Finally, Ben couldn't take it anymore. "Caleb, would you _calm down_?!" he exclaimed. "Jen and the twins are gonna be back any minute."

"N-not what I'm w-worried about..." Caleb stammered quietly, trembling with anxiety.

"Then what are you worried about...?" asked Andrew as Caleb's panicky mood started to make him nervous.

Caleb turned to face them, but he never got to answer them.

_BOOM!_

The second the explosion happened, Caleb tackled Andrew and Ben to the ground, just as a large section of the ceiling collapsed right on top of Andrew's bed, crushing it. It would have crushed Andrew and Ben had Caleb not knocked them out of the way.

That was when the fire started.

As soon as Caleb saw the flames licking at the ceiling above them, he jumped to his feet, pulling Andrew and Ben up with him. Before either of them could blink, Caleb had run across the room and grabbed Andrew's shoulder bag and Ben's medical bag. He shoved each bag into the arms of the respective owner and then pulled them through the door and towards the stairs.

They reached the main throne room in a matter of seconds with the fire at their heels. The smoke was already so thick that it was difficult to see.

"Over here!" came a sudden voice through the smoke. It was James's voice, and it was coming from the elevator. They ran over and through the haze they could see the outlines of James, Christopher, and Josh all huddled in the elevator.

"We're coming!" Ben shouted over the roar of the flames all above them.

Caleb and Ben made it inside the elevator. Andrew was right behind them when the roof started to collapse, and a burning wooden beam fell on him, striking him across the back and knocking him to the floor.

"Andrew!" shouted Ben.

"GO!" exclaimed Andrew, freeing himself from the burning rubble mostly unharmed. He ran towards the elevator as James pulled the lever, allowing it quickly fall.

As soon as the elevator had disappeared from the floor, Andrew jumped down the shaft and grabbed onto the burning hot metal cable, clearing the floor just as the upper ceiling collapsed behind him. He slid down the cable and landed in the elevator. Christopher caught him and stood him upright.

Andrew barely had time to feel the pain from the blisters on his palms from the burning cable when there was a loud snap, and the cable broke. The elevator plunged into free-fall, but luckily, they were already close to the ground. The elevator hit the ground and tumbled to the side, throwing them all out.

"RUN!" shouted Christopher, pulling Andrew and Caleb to their feet before running towards the door. The others followed them, but as the door grew closer, the building began to collapse behind them. Then there was a loud hissing noise.

"The generator!" James shouted breathlessly.

They all just barely made it through the entrance before the generator exploded. The force of the explosion was so great that it threw them all into the forest. The shockwave even knocked Warren out of his tree, and he just barely managed to climb back up before he was seen.

At the edge of the clearing around what used to be the cathedral, the six Gracepunks looked on as the entire building was consumed in flames.

Andrew tried to look, but he was still coughing and painfully gasping from all the smoke. And when he couldn't find the strength to sit up, he simply laid sprawled on his back on the forest floor, knowing he was having a full-blown asthma attack. Painfully looking to his side, he saw that Caleb was also curled up on the ground gasping, but he had managed to curl up on his side. A bit further away, he could also see Christopher leaning on a tree, trying to catch his breath.

Suddenly, someone lifted Andrew into a sitting position from behind and leaned him against a tree, making it much easier to breathe. Andrew glanced up and saw that it was Ben.

"Okay good," said Ben, smiling weakly. "You're still alive. Now let me see what I can do about your hands..."

As Ben tried to heal the deep blistering burns on Andrew's hands, Andrew looked across the clearing and saw James helping Caleb sit up. He also saw that Christopher seemed to have recovered, and he was talking with Josh.

A sudden sigh from Ben brought Andrew's attention back.

"Sorry," said Ben, "but that's the best I can do." He gestured to Andrew's hands, which he had only managed to heal a bit. He had never been good with deep burns, after all...

Ben reached into his medical bag and pulled out two small rolls of gauze. He then wrapped them tightly around Andrew's hands before moving to help the others.

Slowly, Andrew managed to catch his breath and shakily stand up. However, as soon as he was on his feet, Christopher appeared in front of him so suddenly that he nearly fell back down again.

"What the hell happened?!" he demanded angrily.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Andrew, shrugging helplessly.

"Then how did that fire start?" shouted Christopher, his red and gold eyes shimmering with rage.

"You think I started it?" Andrew loudly asked back, feeling himself get angry that Christopher was blaming him.

"Who else would have started it?" exclaimed Christopher. "You three pyros were upstairs where the fire started! How do I know you or Ben didn't steal one of Caleb's fireworks and set something on fire?"

"Because the fire started _above_ us!" shouted Andrew, stepping forward so that he was right in Christopher's face.

Slowly, Christopher took a step back. He looked over at Ben and Caleb. "Is this true?" he asked.

Both of them nodded vigorously.

Finally, Christopher sighed. "Fine," he said, turning away from Andrew and walking back over to Josh.

"Apology accepted, you crazy old bastard..." muttered Andrew under his breath. Suddenly, he turned, hearing footsteps coming up behind him.

There he saw Jen and the twins. All three of them were carrying large backpacks filled with the items they bought from the City.

"What the hell happened?!" exclaimed Jen, her eyes wide in shock.

"Something exploded and caught the place on fire..." said Andrew tiredly, just now starting to feel the pain in his hands.

Before Jen could ask any more questions, the twins dropped their packs and slowly walked forward before dropping to their knees and crying. It took Andrew a moment to realize that they were crying over their burning books. He wanted to say something, but before he got the chance, Caleb walked up to the girls. He slowly knelt down in front of them and gently hugged them. Then, a minute later, he sat back and reached into his bag, pulling out a large red-leather book. The twins audibly gasped and quickly grabbed the book, relieved that their most valuable book had been saved from the inferno.

"So what do we do now?" asked Ben as he and James joined the group.

"We get out of here," said Christopher as he and Josh joined them. "Whoever or whatever caused that fire can't be far behind. We're all in danger. We have to find another safe place to hide... and I know just the one."

Then he turned and walked off into the darkening jungle. The others looked at one another before picking up their meager belongings and trudged after him, leaving their burning home behind...

* * *

_A/N: New chapter! Whoo! Okay, quick little contest: if you can guess why Ben had to use morphine on Caleb (the answer is in chapter 4), then I'll give you a virtual cookie._

_Okay, so now we get into the movie style... kinda. Just... it gets a lot darker from here. So be warned. But at least now it's getting interesting! The cathedral has burnt down and the Gracepunks are on the run from the Gracebeast Warren! Like I've said before... this is gonna be interesting..._


	7. Chasing Snowflakes

_A/N: Well... it snowed where I live, and that inspired me to WRITE! So enjoy._

* * *

**Gracepunk**

The group of Gracepunks walked into the darkening forest, the burning cathedral behind them. They had only been walking for five minutes when the snow started.

The first one to notice the snow was Caleb. He had been completely silent before then, but as soon as he saw the first snowflake, he let out a high-pitch squeak of excitement and went into little kid mode, running through the trees and chasing snowflakes. A moment later, the twins joined him, giggling silently.

"This is just great..." muttered Christopher, pulling his jacket around himself tighter. "We're in the middle of the forest with no shelter, no supplies, and even better, it's dark and snowing."

"Thank you for summing that up..." Ben muttered sarcastically, rolling his eye.

"Anything else you'd like to complain about?" asked Jen with equal sarcasm, not really feeling the need to remind him that she and the twins had just gotten back from the City with supplies.

Christopher simply grunted in return.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he does have a point," said James, glancing over his shoulder at the younger Gracepunks. "We should probably find shelter soon..."

"Where are we going anyways?" asked Andrew tiredly. He still hadn't completely recovered from his asthma attack, and the cold wasn't helping.

"I don't think I should tell you..." said Christopher, staying at the front of the group to avoid eye contact with the others.

"Why not?" asked Ben curiously.

"... Just in case..."

"In case one of us gets captured by a Gracebeast before we get there?" Jen finished for him cynically. "And you really think any of us would tell a Gracebeast anything?" She practically spit out the word Gracebeast.

"Well I know _you_ wouldn't, even with torture," grumbled Christopher. "But I was thinking about some of our... newer... members."

Andrew glared at Christopher, small bursts of fire jumping out of his fingertips. He was certain that even if he got captured and tortured, he wouldn't give anything away.

"Speaking of liabilities, where is your brother?" Christopher asked Jen.

Jen opened her mouth to start shouting, but Ben stopped her. "He's got a point... where are Caleb and the twins...?"

* * *

Warren had been following the group of Gracelings the whole time. Luckily for him, there was a bounty of thick evergreens for him to hide in, and he was able to stay close enough to hear their conversation.

When the snow started, he saw the small kid with black hair run off into the thicker part of the forest, chasing the snowflakes. He also saw the twins follow him.

Warren knew this could possibly be his only chance. The three smallest and youngest members of the group had wandered off. As quietly as he could, he pulled out his gun. It only held three bullets laced with Pitch, but there were only three small Gracelings. One for each bullet. He just hoped none of them were allergic to the Pitch.

His gun in his hand, Warren silently walked across the tree branches, using his complete weightlessness to his advantage. Not even the smallest twigs snapped under his foot.

He located the small Gracelings a moment later. All three of them were sitting huddled in a small clearing. He cursed to himself, since he wouldn't be able to get a good shot at any of their knees until they were standing. After all, he would never shoot to kill. Not on purpose, anyways.

That was when he heard talking. The dark-haired one with the number 6 inked onto the back of his striped hoodie was muttering something, as if he were having a conversation with himself. However, the twins were responding as if he were talking to them.

Warren leaned in a bit closer, but as he did, his hand started to violently twitch, almost causing him to pull the trigger of his gun. He quickly put the gun away before he could accidentally fire it. Then, after waiting a minute for the poison-induced twitch to go away, he focused back on the small Gracelings.

* * *

Caleb had been having fun chasing snowflakes. He was wearing his ink nib gloves, so whenever he could catch a snowflake, he would be able to look at it for a moment before it melted in his warm gloved hands.

He heard the twins coming up behind him, but when he started to turn to see them, a sudden sharp pain in his head sent him to his knees. A moment later, then twins were at his side, one holding onto each arm to keep him upright.

"I'm fine..." Caleb muttered. He slowly tried to get to his feet before exclaiming, "No I'm not..." and falling back to his knees on the freezing ground. He was suddenly completely drained of energy, and he was dizzy and nauseous. This had only happened three times before, but he knew what it meant. It had happened the day before his mother died. It had happened the day before the bombings of the Dead City. It had happened the day before... something else he didn't want to think about...

It was his Grace violently telling him that something very bad was about to happen.

The twins seemed to pick up on the nervous energy radiating from him, especially Sam, since she was the best at reading emotions.

Erika gently placed her finger on Caleb's temple. _What's wrong?_ she asked him.

"S-something bad..." he muttered as he unconsciously pulled a piece of paper out of his bag. His ink nib fingers still had ink left in them, and he started drawing. He drew with his dominant left hand and held onto his key with his right, in turn accidentally smearing ink all over his striped jacket. Again.

_What is it?_ Erika asked. _What's going to happen?_

"Don't know... don't know..." Caleb gasped out, his eyes glazed over. "Something bad... something... something... don't... Don't look up... don't look up..."

Sam and Erika glanced up at each other.

_Sam, can you see anybody?_ Erika asked.

Sam sat still for a moment before slowly shaking her head. _I can see something, but I'm not sure. Maybe they're wearing one of those Gracebeast helmets._

"The helmets b-block out mind readers..." Caleb muttered, only knowing what the twins were talking about because Erika still had her finger on his temple.

_So is there a Gracebeast following us?_ Erika asked nervously.

Caleb slowly nodded. "Don't look up... he... he'll see your eyes..."

_I think it's more important that he doesn't see _your_ eyes!_ exclaimed Sam. _Everyone knows what that bright purple means..._

Caleb slowly nodded, and right at that moment, he finished his drawing.

"Uh oh..." muttered Caleb, only now seeing the picture he had drawn as his mind regained control of his sight. He slowly handed the picture to Erika, who showed it to Sam.

The picture depicted somebody being torn apart by what looked like a large airplane propeller. Off to the side, two other figures were being taken prisoner and shoved into one of the airships that the Gracebeasts used.

The twins looked back and forth between one another and Caleb.

"We should... get back to the others..." mumbled Caleb. The twins nodded and helped him to his feet. Then they supported him as they walked back through the trees to rejoin the others.

* * *

Warren was hopelessly confused.

He hadn't been able to see the drawing, but he knew it must have been important from the twins' body language. He also wondered what was wrong with the dark-haired kid. And more importantly, he wondered what the hell that kid's Grace was...

It wasn't until after the twins had helped the kid to his feet and they rejoined the others that Warren realized he had missed his chance. Mentally cursing himself, he quietly followed the kids back to the group. He was protected from the wind and snow by the trees, but that didn't stop the snow from falling off of the trees wherever he walked. That was why he stayed back.

He knew that the Gracelings wouldn't continue walking for very long, but either way, he knew it was going to be a long night.

* * *

Less than ten seconds after Ben posed the question of where the three youngest Gracepunks were, they came stumbling back onto the nearly invisible path that they had been following. Jen immediately recognized the look on Caleb's face.

"Uh oh, Caleb, what did you see?" she asked, hurrying forward and helping him stand upright. He didn't answer. Instead, he handed her the picture.

Jen took one look at the picture before going pale. "We should keep moving," she said. "Christopher, how far is it to wherever you're taking us?"

"A couple days..." he said quietly.

"Days?!" exclaimed Ben. "In a couple days, it'll be November, and I'm sure you all know how cold it gets around _here_ in November."

"That's why we should get moving!" exclaimed Christopher. "We're running out of time."

"And we're being chased..." muttered Caleb.

All eyes turned to him.

"What did you just say?" asked Josh, who was the only one who hadn't heard what Caleb said.

"Apparently we're being followed by a Gracebeast," said Christopher.

"Not a Gracebeast..." Caleb whispered. However, he whispered it too quiet for the others to hear. The only ones that did hear him were Jen and Andrew, since they were standing right next to him. They both glanced up at each other, sharing a confused expression.

"C'mon, let's go," said Christopher hurriedly. He then turned and continued leading the group on through the darkening forest. Their pace was notably faster, and up in the trees, Warren struggled to silently keep up with them.

* * *

"Okay, here's a good place to stop for the night," said Christopher.

The others sighed and practically collapsed on the ground. They had been walking for four hours now without a break. The twins had already fallen asleep, and Josh was carrying them.

The clearing they had stopped in had low-hanging branches that provided a good shelter from the wind and snow. Still, it was bitterly cold.

"I think it's safe enough to light a small fire," said Christopher, looking at Andrew.

Andrew simply wiped his nose on his sleeve and turned towards the forest to find firewood.

"So what are we going to do for shelter?" asked Ben.

"You all seem to have forgotten that the twins and I went to the City today," said Jen, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought you only went to go get food," said James, reminding himself and everybody else that they hadn't eaten all day.

"Well," said Jen, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out the list Caleb had given her earlier that day, "somebody gave me a tip on what supplies to get."

Jen then set down her bag and opened it up, revealing three long silver tubes along with a variety of other objects. "Sam's bag has the food in it, and Erika's has blankets and such."

"What are these?" asked Christopher, picking up one of the tubes.

"Watch," said Jen, taking it from him. She then walked over to a tree with a very low-hanging branch and snapped the tube on top of the branch. She pressed a button on the top of the tube, and then stepped back. The tube opened up and unfolded, metal supports running the length of the branch and reaching to the ground. A moment later, a tarp rolled out along the metal structure, and the next thing they knew, they were staring at a tent.

"Compact tent..." muttered James, a small smile appearing on his face. "Clever."

Jen went around and found two more branches for the other two tents. Less than a minute later, they had a camp.

"Well that's convenient," laughed Ben. He glanced over at Jen. "What else did you guys get?"

"I got you that bottle of morphine you wanted," said Jen, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small glass jar filled with clear liquid. She was about to toss it to him, but considering the lack of light and Ben's lack of depth perception, she figured it was a bad idea. Instead she walked over and handed the jar to him.

"Thanks," he smiled, putting the jar into his medical bag in a separate waterproof compartment that held his other liquid medicines, including antibiotics, fever medicine, and antivenom for snake and spider bites.

"Great," said Christopher sarcastically. "Now if any of us need surgery, we'll be fine. Now where is Andrew?"

* * *

Andrew had a difficult time finding firewood in the dark. He could have easily ignited his fingertips like a candle, but he didn't want to attract unnecessary attention, especially with the possibility of there being a Gracebeast – or something that wasn't a Gracebeast – following them. After a while, though, he did manage to find enough for a small fire.

As he turned to head back to the group, however, he heard a quiet _thump_ as if something had fallen from one of the trees. Andrew quickly turned around, but he didn't see anything. At least... he didn't _think_ he saw anything. But he couldn't tear his eyes from one area of slightly darker air between the snow-covered trees...

Suddenly, Christopher's voice rang out through the darkness. _"Now where is Andrew?"_

Brought back to reality, Andrew turned and quickly ran back to the campsite.

The first thing he saw when he got back was the first tent that Jen had set up. Then he noticed the other two.

"I don't even wanna know..." he muttered tiredly. He went to the center of the clearing and stacked the dry firewood in a pile. He held out his hand, ready to spark the fire, when he realized that all of the other Gracepunks were crowded around him. He assumed that they were eager for him to start a nice warm fire, but he also realized that Christopher, James, and Josh had never seen him light a fire before. James especially looked curious, as always.

A small smile crept onto Andrew's face, and he sparked a fire that hovered above the palm of his hand. They all winced at the sudden source of bright light. Andrew then stuck his hand into the pile of firewood, and a moment later, they caught and began to burn with a bright orange flame. The heat began radiating out from the fire immediately, and what little snow on the ground that had gotten through the trees began to melt.

"Well now that that's all settled, I think we should eat something and then get to sleep," suggested Jen.

"Yeah, we're gonna need it..." muttered Caleb, who was sitting off to the side, drawing in the dirt.

He knew that they were going to be in for a long day...

* * *

Warren had followed Andrew through the forest as he collected firewood. He stayed up in the trees almost right above him the entire time. He didn't take out his gun because his hand was still twitching, and he didn't want to accidentally fire it and hurt someone.

After a few minutes, Warren was finally able to get a good look at the kid. He recognized him from Felix's description, but there was something else...

Holding onto a large tree branch with one hand, Warren leaned over to try and get a closer look at the strange kid with the number 9 painted on his back.

It was right at that moment that his twitch decided to return.

The muscle in his hand spasmed so violently that he lost his grip on the branch and fell out of the tree. He landed with a soft _thump_, but the kid still heard it. Warren looked up from his position on the ground to find the kid looking directly at him. He was certain that he couldn't see him, though, because he didn't try and run or warn the others.

That was when Warren noticed something. The kid looked familiar. He knew what he looked like from Felix, but there was something else... something he couldn't place...

He knew this Graceling...

A moment later, he heard a voice, and the Graceling turned and left. Warren quickly and quietly scrambled up into a nearby tree, again cursing himself for missing another opportunity to capture a Graceling. When he got back – if he got back – he would be labeled as the worst Gracebeast in history. He wasn't even sure he _was_ a Gracebeast anymore...

With a sigh, Warren got a bit closer to the campsite, just in time to see Andrew light a fire. Felix hadn't been lying when he said the kid could light fires with his mind...

Warren sighed and settled himself in a large pine tree. If he was going to attack, he'd have to do it soon. He somehow knew that this was his last night he would spend sleeping in a tree. He was determined to do something, and whatever happened – good or bad – he would be going back to the safety of the prison. Even though he couldn't help but wonder if he would be going back dead or alive...

* * *

_A/N: Next chapter, stuff gets real. Aw man, you guys are gonna hate me. Mwahahaha! So I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See ya later, nuggets!_


	8. Fallen

_A/N: Elliq had come out of hiding. Prepare for violence, gore, and swearing. Mwa. Ha. Ha._

_Now, before we begin, I'd like to quote one of my favorite villains of all time: "Falling is just like flying, except there's a more... permanent destination." If you can tell me who said that, I'll give you a shout-out in the next chapter._

_Also, if I hear a SINGLE arrow to the knee joke, I will stab someone in the face with a spoon._

* * *

**Gracepunk**

Felix was sitting in a small secluded room in the Gracebeast Factory. He was staring at a monitor, absently biting his nails. The monitor he was looking at was showing Warren's location, along with his vital signs.

It was early in the morning, so early that the sun hadn't risen yet. The only reason Felix was awake was because he was worried, as usual.

As he sat watching the monitor, he started to doze off. However, he snapped back awake when something on the monitor started beeping. He saw that Warren's heart rate had started accelerating faster than normal. It kept accelerating until it had reached a dangerously high level.

Felix quickly signaled for two of the nearby drones to start up one of the airships. As they did, he picked up the portable monitor and carried it on board.

"Emerald Valley, and fast," exclaimed Felix, seeing Warren's location and signaling for the drones to go.

The airship slowly took off. Felix kept his eyes glued to the monitor, willing the airship to go faster.

That was when it happened.

Warren flatlined.

* * *

**Earlier**

Andrew slowly blinked his eyes open. It was early in the morning, so early that it was still dark. For a moment, he forgot where he was. Then his memory kicked in and he remembered that he was lying curled up in a tent in the middle of a freezing cold forest. It wasn't that cold in the tent, though, simply because the tent held heat really well, and his Grace kept him warm.

That was when Andrew noticed that someone was curled up against his side. Looking over, he saw that Caleb was snuggled up under his arm. The little Seer must have fallen asleep while drawing, because he was still wearing his ink nib gloves. Andrew smiled a bit when Caleb hiccuped in his sleep. It was the first time he had ever really seen the kid sleeping soundly...

Glancing around the dark tent, Andrew saw Ben sprawled out on the ground, fast asleep. There was also another slightly smaller shadow next to him that Andrew recognized as James. He figured that James would eventually make his way into their tent, seeing as the night before he had shown an extreme aversion to sharing an enclosed space with his narcissistic cousin and the gas giant, Josh.

Andrew smiled a bit and looked up at the top of the tent. He was still trying to figure out what he had heard the night before. He could have sworn he heard something fall, and he knew that he saw a shadow. But it couldn't have been anything human. Anything human would make a noise if it fell...

Andrew sighed and held up his bandaged right hand, still burnt from sliding down the cables back at the cathedral. He flexed his hand a bit, but was surprised when it didn't hurt like it did last night. Curious, he unwrapped the bandage and was surprised to see that his burns had almost completely healed, leaving nothing but a thin red scar. He assumed the same had happened with his other hand. Then again, he probably shouldn't be surprised. He had always been fast when it came to healing shallow burns and blisters.

Before Andrew could think about the strangeness of how fast his hands healed, Caleb sat bolt upright with a sharp scream. One of his gloved hands with the razor sharp ink nib fingers flew right past Andrew's face, nearly cutting him.

"Whoa, watch it with the claws, Scissorhands!" exclaimed Andrew.

Caleb's scream also woke up Ben and James.

"Caleb? What's wrong?" asked Ben.

Caleb sat blinking for a minute, looking confused. Then he seemed to regain his senses, and he turned to face them. "We have to go." Then, without waiting for a response, he scrambled to his feet and ran out of the tent, most likely to go wake the others.

"Guess we better listen to him," sighed James, folding up his blanket and putting on his gray hat. "But if you asked me, it's too early for this..."

* * *

Warren was curled up in a large pine tree, shivering and wrapped in his wings. Suddenly, he was jolted awake by a sharp scream from down below. He sat bolt upright and looked down through the pine needles to the campsite below. At first he didn't see movement, but then the small boy with the ink black hair from the night before sprinted out of one of the tents and into one of the others.

_Damn, that kid's fast..._

Warren quietly slunk down the tree a bit further. The green pine needles that had kept out the wind and kept in the heat during the night were now concealing him from being seen from the ground. Not even the snow on the needles moved as he descended.

Once he reached the lowest branches, he stopped and crouched down, listening hard. He could hear voices coming from two of the three tents.

A moment later, the skinny black-haired kid came back out. Now that he was moving slower, Warren could see that he was young – only 15 years old – and he also wasn't wearing shoes. He was only wearing socks, and they were already stained red with blood, probably from frostbite or getting cut on the uneven ground. The kid still wasn't looking up, so Warren still couldn't see his eye color.

Slowly, the rest of the Gracelings filed out of the tents. Except Warren only counted eight of them.

Finally, after two of the tents had been taken down and compacted into metal tubes, the last Graceling exited the last tent. This one was wearing a funny hat, and he had a red cape draped around his shoulders. He was talking to the others, but as he spoke, he turned and faced Warren's direction.

Warren gasped. Not only did he recognize the tan one that could start fires, but he also recognized this older one with the funny hat.

_What is going on...?_

Warren zoned out for just a moment, trying to remember where he had seen these Gracelings before. And just as a hazy memory started to emerge, the snap of a branch caught his attention. He looked up just in time to see the Gracelings leaving the clearing and heading off deeper into the forest.

Mentally face-palming himself for letting his guard down, Warren quickly stood up and silently ran through the trees, following right behind the Gracelings.

* * *

Caleb had been in a panic the entire time they were packing up the campsite. He hardly said anything, though. He simply fluttered around the campsite, fidgeting with the key hanging around his neck, which he always did when he was nervous.

"Caleb, what the hell is wrong with you?" grumbled Christopher as he emerged from his tent. "The sun isn't even up yet!"

Caleb didn't answer him. Instead, he simply turned and kept pacing, trembling in the freezing predawn air.

A minute later, all of the tents and blankets had been packed up.

"Do we have any time for food?" mumbled Josh tiredly.

"We'll eat something while we're walking," said Jen, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"Okay..." said Josh, pouting.

"Let's _go_!" exclaimed Caleb.

The others nodded, and Christopher led the way into the forest with Caleb right on his heels. The others followed, silently trudging through the quiet forest with the young Gracebeast following closely behind them.

* * *

They walked for half an hour before the landscape started to change. The thick pine trees started to thin out, and the wind picked up. The snow completely disappeared, and the damp ground because hard and dry under their feet.

"What's going on?" asked Andrew, gesturing to the shifting landscape.

"We're getting closer to – oh look, here it is," said Christopher, gesturing to a gap in the trees that had appeared in their path.

As soon as they were beyond the gap, they all stopped.

They had reached a place once known as Emerald Valley. Andrew remembered taking a field trip to the valley – which was more like a canyon – when he was in elementary school. Back then, Emerald Valley had been nothing more than a crevice in the earth that was completely filled with lush green trees. There had even been several bridges to allow easy access across the Valley.

That was all gone now. There wasn't a single blade of grass left – let alone any trees. The Valley had expanded, now nearly twice as wide and three times as deep as Andrew remembered it. The Valley stretched for a mile across, and looking left and right, Andrew could see that it was several more miles long. There were no trees within a hundred feet of the edge of the Valley, so he could see the sky above and the pitch black clouds rolling across the dark sky. The freezing cold wind was whipping fiercely, blowing his hair back out of his face and chilling him to the bone. Also, there was debris, most likely leftover from the war. Large twisted chunks of metal were scattered across the barren ground, along with bits and pieces of airplanes. Andrew walked a bit closer to the edge, and further down the crevice, he could see an entire fighter airplane sticking out of the inside wall of the crevice, the wings and propeller still attached and jutting out at an odd angle.

"Shit..." muttered Christopher, snapping Andrew out of his trance.

"What is it?" asked Ben, who was standing next to Andrew.

Christopher walked towards the edge, and the group followed him, curious to see what had caused his exasperation.

"Look," he said, gesturing to what looked to be two wooded fence posts sticking straight up out of the ground. "This is where the bridge used to be."

"So what do we do now, genius?" asked Jen, leaning on her spear. She absently reached up to adjust her helmet before remembering that she had left her helmet in the cathedral, and it hadn't made it out.

"There's nothing left to do but go around it," said Christopher, turning around. As he turned, however, his elbow brushed against Caleb's shoulder, and it was enough to bring Caleb out of whatever haze he had been in. The second the Seer took in his surroundings, he let out a high-pitch cry of fear and dropped to the ground, grabbing onto the leg of whichever Gracepunk was the closest – in this case, it was Christopher.

"Not again..." Christopher muttered, glaring down at the trembling Seer.

Jen and the twins quickly came forward to deal with the situation. Jen pried her brother off of Christopher's leg, and the twins gently carried him to the back of the group. Only then did he open his eyes and stop hyperventilating.

"What just happened?" Andrew asked Ben.

"Caleb has a crippling fear of heights," explained Ben.

"Oh..." muttered Andrew. "Poor kid..."

"Okay..." said Christopher, loud enough to be heard over the roaring wind. "Since the bridge has been destroyed, we'll have to just go around." He then started to walk along the length of the Valley, and the others uneasily followed him. They all stayed as close to the treeline as possible, mainly for protection against the wind, but also for Caleb's sake. Andrew noticed that the kid stayed closer to the trees than the rest.

They walked in silence for several minutes, not seeming to come any closer to the end of the Valley. Andrew did notice, however, that they were getting closer to the crashed airplane, and now he could see that it was lodged into the wall about fifty feet below the edge. The Valley itself was almost three hundred feet deep, and the walls were sheer cliffs. A fall would be deadly.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Andrew saw something. It was just a fleeting image – a black silhouette against an even blacker sky – but he was almost certain he saw something moving between the trees on their left. It was the same thing he had seen the night before, and it gave him the chills.

With a gulp, he opened his mouth to say something.

That was when the first shot rang out.

* * *

Warren had followed the Gracepunks all the way to Emerald Valley, but he had been forced to stay back when the trees disappeared. He watched from a distance as the Gracepunks walked up to the edge of the Valley, only just being able to see them in the darkness. The light was so unsure that he thought he saw one of them collapse.

Due to the wind, he also couldn't hear what they were saying, but either way, he knew his window of opportunity was closing. He had to act fast. Today would be the day he would capture one of the Gracepunks, or die trying.

As soon as he saw the Gracepunks start walking back towards the treeline further down the Valley, he reached down and removed his gun from it's holster on his belt. The weapon was so small that it only held three bullets, but all he needed was one.

Taking a deep breath, Warren jumped from tree to tree, not necessarily needing to be quiet thanks to the howling wind. He ran through the trees, catching up to and passing the group of Gracepunks before stopping and crouching down in a place where the branches cleared to give him a perfect shot. He wouldn't shoot to kill, of course, but he did need to wound at least one of them.

As the Gracepunks came into view, Warren took aim. He aimed towards the very back of the group, where the twins and the ink-splattered kid were walking. He debated for a moment before aiming for the left knee of the smaller twin, the one with the 3 written on her jacket.

All he had to do was wait for just a few more seconds for them to be in the right position. However, as he narrowed his eyes to check his aim, something changed. The hardwired Gracebeast part of his brain stopped working for just a minute and his normal human self returned.

_What am I doing...?_ he wondered, blinking a bit as if he had just woken up. He looked down at the gun in his hand. He had unknowingly removed the safety, and his finger was hovering over the trigger.

Warren looked up again as the group began to pass his hiding place, not even taking notice of him. He was still unconsciously following the small Gracepunk with the gun.

That was when Warren made the decision not to be a Gracebeast. He would cut off his foot if he needed to to get rid of the tracking device, but he was determined that he wouldn't go back to the Factory. He wasn't sure where this sudden courage came from, but he didn't want to let it go. He didn't want to let the beast programmed into him take control.

Warren drew the gun back and started to move his finger away from the trigger.

That was when he noticed the skinny black-haired kid. He had slowed down a bit, and was trailing back from the group. Then without warning, his head snapped up and he looked right at Warren, his bright purple and green eyes wide with fear.

Warren gasped at the sight of the kid's eyes. He started to stand up, ready to fly as far away as possible, mostly out of fear.

Then his hand twitched, causing him to pull the trigger of the gun.

_BANG!_

The bullet flew right at the twins.

* * *

Caleb had still been recovering from his panic attack by the crevice when his Grace told him that something was wrong. It was only a small sensation in the back of his mind, but it was enough to get his attention.

He walked with his head down, following the twins' footsteps. He was distracted, using his Grace to try and find where the danger was.

The second Warren looked at him, he found it. His eyes snapped up and he found himself looking right in the eyes of the Gracebeast.

Then he saw the source of the danger.

It was coming from the gun in Warren's hand.

Without another thought, Caleb rushed forward and tackled the twins to the ground just as Warren's hand twitched. He knocked the twins out of the way of the bullet.

The others heard the shot and immediately turned around to see Caleb and the twins on the ground, all three of them looking terrified.

"Run!" Caleb shouted to them, quickly jumping to his feet, grabbing the twins, and pulling them into a nearby bush large enough to hide in.

It was right at that moment that Warren began to panic. His hand twitched again.

_BANG!_

This bullet flew through the air and hit James right in the knee, shattering the bone before going right through his leg and coming out the other side, where it embedded itself into the ground, still completely intact. He let out a cry of pain and crumpled to the ground. However, when he hit the ground, he flicked his hand up and, using his Grace, he made Warren's gun explode. The force of the blast threw Warren backwards where he hit the trunk of the tree he was hiding in. Then, before he could get his balance, he pitched forward and fell out of the tree, flipping in the air before landing flat on his face out in plain sight.

By the time he hit the ground, all the Gracepunks had scattered. Christopher had already dragged James over to the bush where Caleb and the twins were hiding, and the rest of the Gracepunks had pulled out their weapons.

Warren looked up in time to see Jen running full speed at him, her spear held high above her head.

Faster than lightning, Warren was up on all fours, and when Jen reached him, he lunged forward and took her legs out from under her with his wing. Then, using that momentum and the sudden gust of wind – courtesy of his second Grace – he quickly took to the air.

He wasn't flying for two seconds before Andrew threw a fireball at him. The fireball connected solidly with Warren's leg.

Warren let out a cry of pain and tumbled through the air, landing on the other side of the Gracepunks, between them and the Valley. Behind him, he heard a whirring noise, and, with a quick glance, he saw that it was the propeller of the airplane fifty feet below. The violent wind had caused it to start spinning at an alarming speed, and the vortex of air it was creating would be too much for him to fly away from.

He was trapped between four pissed off Gracepunks and a spinning propeller of death.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the Gracepunks – the one with only one eye – shot an arrow at him with his crossbow. Warren tried to dodge the arrow, but it skimmed across his shoulder, slicing open his wing and his shoulder. He didn't even have time to register the pain before the enormous Gracepunk threw an axe at him.

He had no choice. He spread his wings and quickly flew up into the sky, using every ounce of his wind Grace to keep from being sucked into the vortex. The axe still hit him. It dug into the right side of his ribcage and ripped the main fabric of his right wing – and his side – wide open, causing him to instantly lose stability in the air, along with a lot of blood. He started to fall.

Suddenly, a crazy idea sprung into his mind, and in one swift motion, he turned and fired his already loaded harpoon towards the ground, hoping that he would be able to hit the ground and get something steady to hold on to that would keep him from falling.

He accidentally hit Jen in the leg.

"What the fuck!" Jen loudly exclaimed as the harpoon sliced through her thigh and knocked her backwards. Then she felt herself being dragged towards the edge.

Andrew saw this and lunged forward, picking up Jen's dropped spear and jamming it into the ground. He held onto the spear with one hand, and he wrapped his free arm around Jen's chest to keep her from sliding towards the cliff.

"JOSH!" he shouted. "Cut the cable!"

It was at that moment that Christopher and Caleb joined the fight, having left James with the twins. Caleb joined Ben at the edge of the crevice, forgetting his fear in the presence of danger, and he looked for something with which to help shoot the beast down, seeing as Ben was almost out of arrows, and it was hard to hit the Gracebeast while he was tumbling erratically through the air.

Christopher was helping Andrew and Jen, holding onto the cable attached to the harpoon to try and prevent it from hurting Jen any further.

It was right at that moment that Josh managed to find his machete, which he had dropped in the heat of the moment. He then swung the blade and severed the cable.

There was a loud _SNAP_ as the cable broke, and Warren, having nothing else to hold on to, hit the ground. The cable was still loose though. It snapped backwards and was instantly sucked into the vortex, where it caught on the spinning propeller.

Warren was instantly snapped backwards as the cable caught the propeller. Then, because the other end of the cable was still attached to the device on his back, he was dragged backwards towards the edge. Panicking, he fumbled for the latch to release the cable, but his wings were in the way, and he was pulled almost all the way off the ledge.

In a last ditch effort, he pulled out his knife and dug it into the ground.

There was a loud _CLANG_ as his knife hit something metal. Whatever he hit, it began to crack, and the next thing he knew, the entire section of the cliff they were on began to collapse and slide over the edge, into the deep crevice. The ground lurched, and they all went over the edge.

Caleb and Ben managed to miss the propeller by mere feet. They landed on a ledge right next to it. Caleb landed flat on his stomach, and the wind was knocked right out of him. He also thought he felt a rib crack. Ben landed flat on his back, but he also landed on his medical bag. He heard a loud crack, and he hoped that it was a vertebrae instead of something inside the bag.

Up above them, when the ground collapsed, Josh managed to grab onto the edge, and with his free hand, he grabbed Jen and kept her from falling. Andrew grabbed onto Josh's leg, and as Christopher fell past, Andrew grabbed his staff and held it out. Christopher grabbed onto the staff and held on for dear life. Andrew groaned as he felt his right shoulder starting to pop out of it's socket from supporting himself _and_ Christopher.

Warren was in a slightly more difficult situation. He had dropped his first knife when he fell, and now he was holding onto the cliff with his bare hands, his face red as he strained against the propeller trying to pull him down. The force was so strong that the straps that held the cable holder to his back started to bend some of the bones in his ribcage into strained positions.

Gasping for breath, Warren tried to use his wind Grace one last time to try and get further away from the spinning propeller. It worked for a moment, and he was able to climb up close enough to almost reach Christopher's feet.

That was when the backlash hit him.

All of the wind he had been using to hopefully slow the propeller snapped back in on him, slamming him face-first into the side of the cliff. The impact broke his nose and knocked his helmet clean off. It fell into the canyon below, revealing his pale and terrified face.

Dizzy and already bleeding from several other wounds, Warren felt himself start slipping. As a last ditch attempt, Warren lunged forward and grabbed the first thing he could, which happened to be Christopher's cape.

Andrew cursed loudly, now supporting the weight of himself, Christopher, and the terrified Gracebeast who was attached to an enormous spinning propeller.

That was when Christopher's cape started to rip. Warren saw this, and his eyes widened. Holding onto the cape with all the strength in his dominant left hand, Warren fumbled around his belt for his last remaining dagger. He knew the cable was too thick for him to cut, especially from such an awkward angle, but maybe if he could just get a better grip...

That was when he and Christopher made eye contact. Christopher gasped, almost losing his grip on the staff.

He knew this Gracebeast. And from the look on Warren's face, Warren knew him too.

The cape ripped even further, but right at that moment, Warren found his dagger. He pulled it back and stabbed it into the hard wall of the cliff. The knife hit something and deflected off. The cape ripped even further.

Using all of his remaining strength – which wasn't much after his week of sickness and starvation – Warren stabbed the knife into the cliff one last time.

It stuck, but barely.

Then Christopher's cape ripped completely apart, and Warren was again jerked backwards by the force of the still spinning propeller.

And then his knife slipped away from the cliff.

"No!" screamed Christopher, reaching his hand out in a desperate attempt to catch Warren.

He was too late.

With sickening speed, Warren was sucked down by the vortex.

He hit the propeller full on.

A moment later, the wind stopped.

Andrew and Christopher hadn't been able to see what happened to Warren because of the dust cloud the propeller had kicked up. Ben and Caleb, however, had been in the perfect position to see what had happened.

They had watched in horror as Warren hit the spinning propeller full speed. They could hear the sickening crunch of his bones on the impact, and less than a second later, they were both splattered in hot, sticky blood.

They didn't see what happened to him after he hit the propeller though. All they could see was a fleeting glimpse of the dark, mangled form as it fell deep into the chasm.

Ben simply stared for a minute before looking down at Caleb, who was on his hands and knees, still trying to catch his breath. He looked much paler than before, and he was staring with wide hazy eyes at the spot where Warren had been torn to shreds.

Trembling, Ben looked up and saw that the others had already climbed back up. Andrew and Josh were leaning over the edge, though, and they were lowering a rope.

Ben took hold of the rope and tied it around his waist. He then looked at Caleb. The poor kid was still frozen, and if the look in his eyes were anything to go on, Ben knew he was in shock. He knelt down and gently shook Caleb's shoulder.

"Caleb?"

The Seer slowly looked up at Ben, his eyes wide and his face a mask of fear.

"Do you think you can hold on long enough for us to get out of here?"

Slowly, Caleb gave a single weak nod.

Ben nodded and bent down, and Caleb crawled up on his back, wrapping his skinny arms around his neck and holding on for dear life. Ben then tugged on the rope, and Josh pulled them both up.

As soon as they reached the top, Caleb slid off of Ben's back and quickly crawled into a nearby bush, where he violently threw up.

Ben couldn't blame him.

Looking around, he saw that the others had regrouped themselves. The twins were helping James limp over towards the group. Ben could tell just from where the large bloodstain was that the bullet had shattered his left knee. He looked over at Jen to find that she was leaning on Andrew, and he was unfortunately able to read her lips. None of the others looked any worse for wear, except Caleb, who was still vomiting.

As Ben went over to help James and the twins, he walked past Christopher, who was staring off into space.

"Hey!" he said, snapping his fingers in front of Christopher's face and snapping him out of his trance.

"What?" asked Christopher, his usual venom missing from his voice.

Ben reached into his bag – he still hadn't found out what the loud crack had been – and pulled out a water bottle. He handed it to Christopher and said, "Go give this to Caleb and make sure he's okay." He then turned and went to help James.

Muttering several swear words under his breath, Christopher turned and walked towards Caleb. The kid was still sitting there, facing away from him, hunched over and trembling.

"Hey, kid..." he started to say, but he trailed off when he noticed that Caleb's hands were covered in blood.

Glancing over his shoulder, Christopher saw that no one was looking. He knew they needed to continue moving as soon as possible to avoid getting caught again.

"I'm sorry about this..." he whispered to Caleb. Then he put his hand on Caleb's shoulder.

* * *

Andrew had learned a lot about Christopher's Grace in the time he spent at the cathedral. He learned that Jen and the twins were the only ones immune to his influence, but he didn't know if it was because of their Graces or because they were girls.

The next thing he learned was that a hand-to-shoulder contact was the best way for Christopher to use his Grace. Andrew figured there was some kind of nerve in the shoulder that drew a link to the brain and made that the most influential spot. When he tried to think about it, however, it made his head hurt. The only think he really learned out of that was that whenever Christopher put his hand on someone's shoulder, he was probably using his Grace on them.

The final thing Andrew learned was that pain can make one more susceptible to influence. Pain weakens the mind and willpower, and even something like an influence Grace can be seen as a relief.

Andrew had been helping Jen stand as she spouted a line of curse words and insults that would make even a Gracebeast blush. The only reason he noticed Christopher was because he saw him glance around to make sure nobody was looking. Then he saw him put his hand on Caleb's shoulder and start talking to him.

Andrew narrowed his eyes, his naturally suspicious nature taking over. However, his suspicions were eased a bit when he saw Caleb nod, and he calmed down a bit more when he saw Christopher hand him a bottle of water. Then he realized he was probably being too paranoid, and Christopher had probably just been making sure Caleb was okay.

Andrew let it go, and a few minutes later, the rest of the group had gathered at the edge of the forest where he and Jen were waiting. Ben had done his best to heal James' knee, but the bone had been completely shattered, and he could only really heal flesh wounds. James was, however, able to walk on his own now.

"We should leave, now," said Christopher, straining to be heard over the sound of the wind, which had just picked up again.

"If you haven't noticed," said Ben as he healed Jen's leg, "we may not be ready to move on yet."

"I don't think we have much of a choice," said Christopher. "That Gracebeast probably has backup, and they probably know that he's dead by now." Andrew was the only one to notice that Christopher's voice cracked a bit when he claimed that the Gracebeast was dead.

"We should leave before they get here," Christopher finished. After a moment, the others nodded in agreement.

"Let's just stay in the forest this time..." muttered Ben.

The group began walking towards the treeline, notable slower than before. Everyone looked exhausted, even though the day hadn't even started yet.

As they walked, however, Andrew stumbled over something. He looked down and saw that it was a long thin metal pole that had been slightly bent at the end. He picked it up as he walked, and when he looked ahead and saw James limping along, he got an idea of what to do with it.

Activating his Grace, Andrew held the fire in the palm of his hand and ran his hand up and down along the end of the metal pole, heating it up until it was red hot. When it got hot enough, he bent the end into somewhat of a hook, forming a cane. As soon as it cooled down, he would give it to James.

By the time they reached the safety of the forest a minute later, the sun had risen. Andrew looked up and saw through the trees that the rising sun had turned the dark billowing clouds blood red.

They walked on in silence.

* * *

Not a minute after the group of Gracepunks reached the safety of the forest, the Gracebeast airship with Felix and the two drones arrived at Emerald Valley.

"Go down," Felix ordered, staring intently at the monitor that showed Warren's location and vital signs.

The drones obeyed and carefully lowered the small airship into the Valley. The second the airship landed, Felix sprinted out. They had reached the very bottom of the enormous Valley, but Warren was nowhere to be found. Felix was breathing hard, already panicking. The monitor told him that Warren was still alive, but only barely. His heart would flutter weakly for a few minutes before flatlining again for several terrifying seconds. At one point before they got there, Warren's heart had stopped for a full five minutes before starting back up again.

"WARREN!" Felix shouted at the top of his lungs. He could barely see anything within 100 feet of his face due to the darkness and the dust in the air. He took another breath and prepared himself to yell again.

That was when he saw it. Caught on a shard of metal sticking out of the ground was a large piece of light gray fabric. Felix recognized it instantly as a shred of Warren's wings, blowing in the wind like a ghost. Felix slowly reached out for it, but a strong gust of wind blew it away, sending it down the length of the Valley where it disappeared in a cloud of dust.

As soon as the fabric had gone, Felix looked past it. There, against the wall of the chasm, was a thin, broken body, lying in a pool of blood.

Felix sprinted over to the body, his heart in his throat. It was Warren. And he looked terrible. His wings were completely shredded, and entire body was covered in bruises and deep lacerations, especially what Felix could see of his back. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst injury was on the right side of his chest. Most of the flesh was gone, and Felix could see the white bones of his ribs showing through all the blood and mangled flesh.

Felix knelt down next to his best friend. He could see that Warren was still breathing, but his breathing was rapid and painful-looking. Felix gently pressed the back of his palm against Warren's forehead and wasn't surprised to find that he was burning with a fever, probably caused by an infection.

Suddenly, Warren coughed, spitting out blood.

"Don't worry, it'll be okay..." said Felix hurriedly, glancing over his shoulder at the drones, who had gotten out a stretcher.

When the drones moved Warren onto the stretcher, Felix thought he saw his eyes flicker open for just a second. The drones then quickly lifted Warren up in the stretcher and ran him back to the airship with Felix close behind.

* * *

As the Gracepunks walked through the forest, the clouds overhead got darker, and thunder began to rumble in the distance. There was a storm coming.

And the twins, who were afraid of thunderstorms, weren't happy about it one bit. As soon as the first rumble of thunder rolled across the stormy sky, they nearly jumped out of their hoodies. A moment later, Josh found them hiding completely under his jacket.

"I guess we'd better find some place to wait out the storm, then," said James, turning to hide his smile as he limped along with the rest of the group, leaning heavily on the cane Andrew had made for him. The twins poked their heads out of the neck of Josh's jacket and nodded in agreement, while Jen was trying not to burst into laughter at the fact that it looked like Josh now had three heads.

They walked on for a few more minutes before finding a large cave. It wasn't very deep, but it was large enough for everyone – even Josh – to fit in.

As the group settled into the cave, Andrew grabbed Christopher by the shoulder and quickly led him far enough from the cave so that none of the others would be able to hear.

"What?" demanded Christopher.

"You knew that Gracebeast," said Andrew. "How did you know him?"

Christopher looked like he was about to get mad and start yelling, but he stopped, his shoulders sagging with defeat and – possibly – sadness.

"Yes. I knew him," he said, staring down at his feet.

"How?" asked Andrew, his firm tone lightening up a bit as curiosity took over.

Christopher was quiet for a minute before holding his head up and looking Andrew in the eyes. "He was my nephew."

Andrew gasped and actually took a step back. "What...?" was all his mind could come up with.

Christopher nodded. "His name was Warren, or at least that's what my sister named him. He and his twin brother – Aidan – were kidnapped by Gracebeasts when they were infants... And his brother died. I'm not sure how, but we found him a month later..."

Andrew was shocked, but the thought also saddened him deeply. He had seen the terror on Warren's face right before he fell, but he had also seen how young he was – he looked like he was only a year or two older than himself. And he was Christopher's nephew?!

Then he realized something else, and the thought brought a stab of pain to his chest.

"What is it?" asked Christopher, seeing the pained look on Andrew's face.

"Nothing..." said Andrew with a shrug. "It's just... my sister's nickname for me was Aidan."

Christopher raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask Andrew about it, a deafening clap of thunder echoed through the sky, and a few drops of rain started to fall.

"We better head back to the others," said Andrew, turning and heading back towards the cave where the others sat huddled, shivering against the cold wind. Andrew ducked into the cave and sat down next to Jen, while Christopher went and sat in the corner as far from the others as possible. A minute later, the rain outside turned into a torrential downpour with the occasional clap of thunder and bolt of lightning.

"What a way to start the morning," Andrew whispered to Jen.

Jen smiled and glanced over at the twins. Ben and James were currently tickling them to try and distract them from the storm. It was working.

As Jen glanced around, she saw that none of the others looked any worse for wear, except...

Jen looked around the cave three times before she finally spotted Caleb. He was sitting in one of the far deep corners of the cave, curled up in a ball with his shoulders hunched, his head down, and his hands shoved into his pockets. Jen noticed that he was trembling, and he looked paler than usual.

"Caleb?" she whispered, crawling over and sitting next to him. He briefly glanced up at her, and from the angle she was sitting at, she could only see his bright purple eye, which was glazed over and glassy.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." muttered Caleb, turning a bit more so that he was facing the wall of the cave he was pressed against.

"Really? A-are you sure?" she asked, slowly reaching out towards him. She stopped, however, when she saw him shrinking away from her touch.

"Caleb?"

"I said I'm _fine_," he snapped, huddling closer to the wall as if he were trying to get away from her. "You try watching s-someone get ripped to shreds, then tell me how _you_ feel."

"Right..." said Jen, backing up a bit to give her brother some space. "I'm sorry."

In response, Caleb pulled his hood up, even though there was a long slit in the fabric, and some of his unruly black hair stuck out of it, giving the impression that the hood itself had hair.

Jen sighed, and she could see that her brother was still uncomfortable, judging by his tense position and clenched jaw. She decided to leave him alone, trusting that he would come back around in time. She crawled back over and sat next to Andrew.

"Is he okay?" asked Andrew quietly.

Jen only shrugged. "I think he'll be okay, but he's still traumatized."

"I don't blame him."

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours before the storm finally subsided, leaving nothing but freezing cold wind and slightly less dark clouds.

"We better get moving," said Christopher, speaking for the first time since the storm started. "We've got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall." As he spoke, Andrew noticed that his eyes were slightly red, as if he had been crying. He didn't mention it though.

From the back of the cave, Caleb watched quietly as the others filed out. Once they were all out, he slowly and painfully got to his feet, absently glancing down at what he had written in the dirt before walking out and joining the others.

He had written only two word:

_Help me..._

* * *

Felix was pacing up and down the hallway outside of the entrance to the medical ward. The flight back to the Factory had been a nerve-wracking one, seeing as Warren's heart had stopped twice during the flight. Once they got to the Factory and made it to the medical ward, all three of the Healers had immediately surrounded Warren, and the youngest Healer, a seventeen year old infection Healer named Ginger, had ordered Felix to leave.

Felix had been pacing for about two hours, and his feet were bleeding. Every time he heard footsteps, he would whip around, hopeful and fearful at the same time that it would be one of the Healers coming to tell him what was going on.

After a while, Felix began to lose feeling in his toes, and he thought it best to sit down. However, as soon as he sat down, someone sauntered up to him.

_Please, not now..._ Felix thought helplessly, closing his eyes.

"Aw, taking a cat nap?" asked an irritatingly high-pitch female voice.

Felix counted to ten and took several deep breaths before cracking open his eye, the one that he couldn't see out of. That way he wouldn't have to look at her any longer than necessary.

"Oh good, you are awake."

"Go away, Melody," said Felix, opening both eyes and struggling to keep his voice calm as he glared at the female Gracebeast in front of him. She was one of Rogue's apprentices, practicing to become a torturer. She worshiped Rogue as a god, and she was just as irritating.

Melody leaned on the guitar she always kept with her. "Why would I go away?" she asked in an incredibly bitchy voice, which made Felix dig his fingers into the wooden bench he was sitting on.

"You should go away because I'm about to smash your guitar over your head," said Felix, still managing to maintain a calm voice.

Melody rolled her red and black eyes and pushed a strand of her black hair, which was streaked with red, out of her pale face. She impatiently tapped her healed boot against the floor.

"Don't be stupid," she said, her hands on her hips. "If you did anything to me, Rogue would throw you into the Cold Room."

_There she goes again. Stop acting like a fucking twelve year old._

"Anyways, I just came by to see if Warren was dead yet," she continued, acting as if Felix had actually been listening instead of plotting her death. "I heard he screwed up at trying to catch some Gracelings. Go figure. He's probably the worst Gracebeast in history."

Felix counted to ten again.

"Well, other than you," finished Melody.

_I'm four years older than you, you sixteen year old bitch. Respect your elders._

"Well, I better go," said Melody with an annoying amount of cheerfulness. "Let me know when he dies." Then she happily skipped off.

Felix hoped for the sake of everyone else that the only person around him when he snapped was Melody.

For a moment, Felix was so focused on trying to remove his fingernails from the wooden bench that he didn't hear the door to the medical ward open. He did, however, see Ginger standing right in front of him. He quickly jumped to his aching feet and opened his mouth, a jumble of questions ready to spill out. However, Ginger silenced him with a simple wave of her hand.

"You might want to sit back down," she said.

Felix nodded and sat down, knowing very well that the young Healer was in charge as always. No matter what the others thought, Ginger was the one who was really in charge of the Factory, since she had the power to save lives. She simply ruled from the back seat, though.

Ginger sat down next to Felix, and that was how he knew that there was bad news. That, coupled with the fact that her doctor's coat was almost completely covered in blood.

"First of all... yes, he is alive," said Ginger. Felix let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"So what's the bad news?" he asked quietly.

Ginger bit her lip. "This was why I made you sit down. He lost about half of the blood in his entire body, and we had to give him a couple transfusions... okay, a lot. Also, he's very lucky that we have the technology to grow new internal organs within minutes, because we had to replace his liver and his right lung. Also, he lost a kidney, so if he recovers, he isn't allowed to have any alcohol unless he wants to be poisoned by it."

Felix didn't like the way she said _if_ he recovers.

"Now for the actual damage..." muttered Ginger before continuing in a normal voice. "He had a fractured skull, a broken nose, fractured collarbone, every single one of his ribs were broken, and most of the vertebrae in his upper back were cracked. We managed to fix those, though, and now he'll be able to use his legs again. As for the infection, I took care of that, and Duncan brought his fever back down to less lethal levels. He also healed that burn on his leg. How did he get that anyways?"

"New Graceling..." muttered Felix. "Pyrokinetic. That's why the Baron sent him out in the first place. That Graceling is the same little bastard that half blinded me."

Ginger nodded. "Yes, I remember your vulgar comments about him. Like I was saying, Warren's back was mostly shredded, but there was still enough skin left for us to stitch him up. He's still pretty bloodied up, though...

"And... there's one more thing. The only thing we're really worried about now is the gaping wound on his right side. There's not enough skin left for us to patch it up, and it also set off some internal bleeding, and you know we can't fix that."

Felix mentally cursed Rogue for killing the last wound healer they had.

"Isn't there anything else you can do?" asked Felix. "Duncan can heal burns, so why can't he heal flesh wounds?"

"I don't think he'll be healing anyone for a while," said Ginger, her voice taking on her normal salty tone. "He used so much energy trying to lower Warren's fever that he got two nosebleeds and nearly passed out from Grace exhaustion."

Felix suddenly found his feet very interesting. "Sorry..." he muttered. A moment later, he risked a glance back up at Ginger. "So can I see my friend?"

Ginger was still for a minute before slowly nodding. She then stood up and opened the door to the medical ward, followed by Felix.

The medical ward was probably the only part in the entire building that had all of the lights working. Felix winced when he walked in, seeing as he was sensitive to bright lights. The room itself was filled with curtains strung up all over the place, creating small private compartments, all of which had their own beds. Most of them were unoccupied, though.

"Follow me," said Ginger, leading Felix down a long corridor of curtains. When she reached the end, she pulled back the last curtain on her right, revealing one of the small compartments.

Warren was lying in the bed, barely visible under all the blankets and bandages. He was hooked up to several machines that Felix had never seen before, and from what Felix could tell, he was still unconscious. He could also see that the bandages wrapped around Warren's right side were bloodstained already.

"You've got five minutes," said Ginger, closing the curtain.

Felix slowly sat down in the chair next to the bed. He was quiet for a minute before slowly speaking.

"If... if you can hear me... I just... want to let you know that you're alive, and you'll probably survive..."

No response.

Felix sighed and sat back in his chair, growing more and more frustrated by the second. It was his fault that his best friend was dying... but then again...

Maybe it wasn't his fault. No... it wasn't. It was that little Graceling's fault! If that Graceling hadn't blinded him in one eye, then Warren wouldn't have had to go out and fight and nearly get himself killed.

The more he thought, the more his anger grew. By the time Ginger returned a few minutes later to tell him to leave, his vision was red and his fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white. As he walked out of the medical ward and took his place on the bench again, he knew that he was going to make somebody pay.

* * *

The Gracepunks were still in the forest. They had left Emerald Valley behind some time ago, and it was starting to get dark.

As they walked, however, they noticed a strange blue glow coming from somewhere off the path.

"What is that?" whispered Ben, trying to get a good look at whatever it was that was glowing.

Slowly, Caleb stepped forward from the back of the group. He didn't say anything. He simply walked towards the blue lights, and the twins followed him, not failing to notice that he was limping.

A moment later, Caleb and the twins emerged in a clearing. At the center of the clearing, glowing blue flowers were scattered around. The twins glanced at each other, curious, but Caleb seemed to know exactly what they were.

A small smile crept onto his face, and he slowly and carefully walked into the center of the clearing. He then carefully knelt down and plucked one of the flowers from the ground, cupping it in his hands.

"What kind of flowers are these?" muttered Ben as he entered the clearing along with Jen and Andrew.

"They're called Skysparks," said Caleb quietly. "They only grow where lightning has struck. That's why the glow blue."

"Really?" asked Andrew, bending down to inspect the flowers. They were shaped kind of like tulips, but the pedals were blue and there was a bright white glow emanating from inside. Andrew stuck his finger inside out of curiosity, and he was immediately zapped so hard that his entire arm went numb and it felt like someone punched him in the chest and filled his lungs with lead.

"What the hell was that?" he gasped as he found himself lying flat on his back on the ground.

"Oh yeah, you might wanna be careful," said Caleb. "They've still got lightning inside of them."

"Thanks for the warning..." Andrew coughed.

Caleb stared at the flower he was holding for a minute before turning it upside-down and shaking it above his hand. A moment later, something glowing bluish white fell out of the flower and into his hand. The flower itself then went dark, and Caleb set it down, staring with wide, hazy eyes at the tiny bolt of lightning in the palm of his hand. After a moment, he reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out an empty ink bottle. He then gently let the small little piece of lightning fall into the clear glass bottle. He did this several more times, looking genuinely happy for the first time all day.

After a few minutes, he had collected about twenty bottles of electricity, and he put them all in his bag. Then he stood with a wince and carefully walked back towards the others.

"Just a precaution," he said, addressing their questioning looks. "S-should we get back to the others...?" Without waiting for an answer, he quickly walked back to where James, Christopher, and Josh were waiting. Caleb pulled one of the bottles out of his bag and handed it to James.

"What is this?" he asked quietly, looking at the glowing bottle.

"Lightning," said Caleb before quietly returning to the back of the group.

As they regrouped and continued walking, Caleb started to walk a bit slower as the dizziness returned. He started to have trouble breathing again thanks to his cracked rib, so he pulled his inhaler out of his pocket and took a quick hit from it. It didn't help much. Then he realized what the problem was: he was starting to _feel_ again.

Right at that moment, the twins appeared by his side.

_Are you okay?_ Erika asked him, not even bothering to use sign language, even though Caleb was the only one truly fluent in it since he used it for the first five years of his life.

"I'm fine," whispered Caleb.

_You've said that a lot today._

"Because you guys keep asking..." said Caleb, swatting Erika's hand away before quickly speeding up to catch up with the others. His limp was now obvious.

Erika turned to her sister, who had been trying to read his emotions while they talked.

_Did you get anything from him?_ Erika asked.

Sam nodded, just for a moment thinking of that morning. The reason she hadn't been able to see Warren was because he had been wearing his helmet, which blocked out any mental Graces from detecting him. However, when Warren's helmet had fallen off, she had been able to see that he was glowing with white hot fear and pain.

_It's almost like he's wearing one of those helmets,_ said Sam. _He's got really good control of his emotions, but..._

_What is it?_ asked Erika. _What did you see?_

Sam sighed. _Just for a second... I saw pain._

* * *

It was getting late. Very late. Almost everyone in the Factory had gone to sleep. Everyone except Felix, who was still sitting on the wooden bench outside of the medical ward. It was almost midnight, and he still hadn't heard anything else about Warren's condition.

"Well well well," said a sudden smooth voice from right next to him.

Felix couldn't help but smile, even though he made it look like a grimace. He was very glad that Melody had shown up again, because he really needed someone to take his anger out on.

"What do you want, you heartless bitch?" Felix asked, glaring up at her.

"I just wanted to come and check back in on you and your little friend," sneered Melody. "I mean, it's my job to torture him, so before he dies in a couple hours, I want to give him a bit of hell. Just to hear him scream one last time..."

Before Melody could continue, Felix's hand shot out and he grabbed Melody's guitar. Melody was taken by surprise, and Felix was able to rip the guitar out of her hands. He immediately took a swing at her, but she had already started to run. She didn't get far. Felix was fast and pissed, and Melody was wearing heels.

The second he was in range, Felix swung the guitar and cracked Melody across the head with it. Melody crumpled to the ground, too dizzy to do anything but moan, and Felix picked her up by her throat. He dragged her into a nearby room and threw her down on the stone floor before slamming the door and locking it. He knew that Rogue was already asleep, and he was a deep sleeper. He also knew that these spare rooms were used as backup torture chambers, and they were designed to block out sound so that nobody on the outside could hear the screaming.

Felix looked through the torture equipment before finding a large wooden tub. He dragged it to the center of the room and started filling it with water, using the hose attached to the wall that he would use to wash up the blood afterward. Melody, who was terrified of water, seemed to realize what was about to happen, so she tried to clamber to her feet. Felix saw her though, and he shoved her to the ground.

Then he decided to make sure she couldn't run. He made sure the door was firmly shut and locked before turning back to Melody, who was lying dazed on the ground. He cracked his knuckles. It was time for a bit of revenge... *

Half an hour later, the tub was filled with water, and Melody was curled up in a ball on the floor, bruised and bleeding. Felix again picked her up by her neck and dragged her to the tub. Before Melody could take a breath, Felix dunked her head underwater. She flailed around, panicking, until Felix finally pulled her out. He let her breathe for a few seconds before dunking her again.

He spent the next hour or so dunking Melody until she finally lost consciousness. He laid her sprawled out on the floor, soaking wet.

Felix dumped the water down the drain on the floor. Then he used the hose to wash Melody's blood off the floor. Then, finally, he turned to Melody. Her clothes hid most of the bruises and cuts, but not all of them. Felix knew that she wouldn't tell Rogue about what happened because it would be too traumatic. She would probably repress it, or her concussion would make her forget it. But Felix knew that chance wouldn't be enough. He needed an airtight explanation for what happened.

After a moment's debate, Felix brought his boot down on Melody's ankle, breaking it. Melody was so far gone that she didn't even moan. Felix then picked her up and dragged her out of the room. He dragged her to the bottom of the stairs that led to the part of the Factory where her room was located. He then left her sprawled on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, knowing that by the time somebody found her, she would have dried off. And when someone _did_ find her, they would hopefully assume that she had tripped on the stairs, broken her ankle, and fallen, receiving the cuts and bruises from the stairs.

Making sure everything looked perfect, Felix quickly ran to his room, changed into dry yet still dirty clothes, and then ran back to the medical ward, where he sat on the bench outside in the same place he had been sitting all night.

* * *

Darkness fell fast, and so did the temperature. The cloud cover thickened, increasing the darkness. Finally, it started to lightly snow.

"We should stop here," said Jen, tossing her pack to the ground. The others looked around and saw that they were in a wide clearing with plenty of overhanging trees to hang the tents on.

"Good idea..." muttered James, leaning heavily on his cane and looking ready to collapse at any second.

Looking around, Jen saw that everyone else looked exhausted. Christopher looked like he was sleepwalking, James wasn't putting any weight on his injured leg, and Josh was carrying the twins, who had fallen asleep half an hour ago. Andrew and Ben were sluggishly putting up the tents, and Caleb was sitting curled up in a ball on the ground, shivering. He hadn't thrown up for an hour now, so Jen hoped that that meant the shock was finally wearing off.

Jen walked over to help Ben and Andrew set up the three tents. They worked in silence until Andrew struck up a conversation.

"Rough day, huh...?" he mumbled, smiling tiredly at Jen.

Jen shrugged. "I've had worse."

"So what do you think we're gonna do now?" asked Ben. "I mean, if the Gracebeasts already know where we are..."

"Actually..." said Jen slowly, a thought forming in her head, "I don't think they know where we are anymore. I mean, the only reason that Gracebeast attacked us was probably because he was following us from the beginning."

At that moment, Jen felt someone tug on her sleeve.

"Jen...?" That was Caleb's voice.

"Just a second," she said, waving him off without looking at him. "Anyways, he must have been the one who started the fire, not you guys."

"Tell that to Christopher..." muttered Ben.

"But how did he find us in the first place?" Andrew wondered out loud.

"He probably used that spider-bot thing that was attached to your arm," said Jen.

Before she could continue, however, Caleb tugged on her sleeve again.

"Jen..." he said, sounding a bit more panicked.

"Just a minute, Caleb," said Jen, her voice a bit harder now. Before she could say anything else, Caleb grabbed her arm.

"Jenny..." he whimpered.

Jen froze, her face pale and her eyes wide. She felt her blood freeze as a cold hand of fear clenched down on her. Caleb never called her that. Not unless he was terrified or...

Jen didn't finish that thought. Instead, she turned and looked at her brother. Then she finished her thought.

… dying...

Caleb was deathly pale, and he was holding out his hands, which were covered in blood. His eyes were glassy and pain-filled, and the lower left half of his sweater was soaked in blood, most of it dried but some still fresh.

Before Jen could say anything, Caleb collapsed on the ground unconscious...

* * *

_A/N: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA EVIL LAUGHTER HA HA HA HA HA!_

_Okay, let me clarify something. The bullet that James got shot with went right through his leg, along with the tracker device AND the Pitch. So he's not being tracked or poisoned. Just thought I'd clear that up._

_* implied rape scene. _

_Bye!_


	9. Emergency

_A/N: Apparently I write some of my best work whilst traveling at seventy miles an hour._

_Contemplate that._

_Also, I forgot to say that Melody from the last chapter isn't my character. She belongs to Twilight-na of deviantART. She writes awesome 9 stories, so go check her out!_

* * *

**Gracepunk**

Panic.

That was the only word that could accurately describe the immediate situation.

The second Caleb collapsed, Jen rushed to his side and quickly picked him up off the ground, lifting up his shirt to get a look at the wound on his side. What she saw made the blood drain from her face.

"Oh my god..." she gasped. "Ben!"

Ben immediately ran over, struggling to see in the darkness. "What is it?!" he exclaimed. "What's wrong with him?!"

"He's been shot!" she shouted, her voice cracking and her eyes glazed as if she were about to start crying.

"Let's get him inside," said Ben, gesturing to the largest of the three tents. Jen nodded and gently picked up the lifeless body of her brother, carrying him into the tent.

"Andrew!" exclaimed Ben, gesturing for Andrew to follow them inside. "See if you can light this place up a bit, okay?"

Andrew nodded and made a small fireball in his hand. However, the little flame only succeeded in throwing more shadows around the inside of the tent, so he tried something different. He clenched his hand into a fist around the fireball and increased the intensity of the fire. A moment later, his hand began to glow white, casting an even, smooth light, even though it was draining his energy as he tried to maintain it.

Ben quickly laid down a few blankets, and Jen gently laid Caleb on top of them. She then peeled the sticky sweater away from the wound before taking it off of him completely and tossing it to the side. The light green short-sleeve shirt he was wearing underneath was completely soaked with blood, and Jen pulled that off too, finally revealing the wound.

Andrew almost gagged.

Most of Caleb's abdomen was smeared with blood, most of which was dried and cracked. The wound itself was located just above his left hip, a relatively small bullet hole. However, it looked like it had been torn open several times, and there was a small yet steady stream of red sticky blood and pus flowing out of it. The skin around the wound was angry red and inflamed, and there were black streaks that stood out in stark contrast with Caleb's pale skin. The streaks started at the wound and spread outwards, reaching across his stomach and up towards his ribs.

Andrew wasn't a doctor, but he knew that the wound was more than serious.

Ben's reaction was similar to Andrew's.

"Holy shit..." he muttered, his face growing pale. He quickly reached under Caleb's back as if feeling for something.

"Dammit, no exit wound," he said quickly, pulling his hand back. "The bullet's still in his side, and we've gotta get it out before this gets any worse."

It was right at that moment that Caleb came back into consciousness. He coughed a bit before slowly blinking his eyes open, his face contorted in pain. He looked confused until Jen leaned into his field of vision.

"Hey..." she whispered, smiling sadly as she gently stroked his hair out of his sweaty face.

"Hey..." he said weakly, a pained smile creeping onto his face.

Jen sighed a bit. "Why didn't you tell us...?"

Caleb looked away guiltily. "I, uh... I couldn't..."

Jen narrowed her eyes in confusion. "What do you mean you-" Then she stopped, and her face went blank. "I'm gonna kill him."

Jen started to stand up, but Caleb quickly grabbed onto her wrist, holding on with surprising strength for someone who had been walking through a freezing cold forest all day sporting an infected bullet wound.

"Please don't go..." he whimpered, his voice cracking to reveal how scared he really was.

Jen was still for a moment before sitting back down, holding onto Caleb's right hand. "Don't worry," she said, the anger melting out of her voice. "I'll stay."

At that moment, Ben spoke up. "We better hurry up and get this over with before it gets much worse."

Slowly, Caleb nodded, grimacing as if the movement caused him pain.

Ben sighed and reached into his medical bag, searching for the equipment he would need. "How did it get like this?" he asked Caleb. "And when did it happen?"

"Happened this morning..." he whimpered. "I pushed the twins out of the way, and it hit me instead."

"Well how did the wound get torn open?"

"Partly from when I fell off the cliff, and..." He trailed off as if he had said too much.

"_And_...?" Ben pressed.

Caleb gulped before slowly holding up his left hand and unclenching his fist. Sitting in the palm of his bloodstained hand were several small but deadly-looking pieces of metal shrapnel.

"I got all of it out except the actual bullet..." he said quietly.

"Holy shit..." muttered Ben, Andrew, and Jen at the same time. Before they could say anything else, however, Caleb went into a coughing fit, which only caused more blood to flow from the wound. Jen helped him sit upright, and a few minutes later, when the fit finally subsided, he had blood trickling out of his mouth.

"Alright, we need to hurry up," said Ben, making sure he had everything he needed, which included a variety of scalpels, tweezers, and needles. The sight of all those sharp objects made Andrew feel slightly queasy.

Ben nodded to himself and then reached in his bag one more time. Then he stopped, the color draining from his face. "Shit..." he muttered.

"What is it?" asked Jen hurriedly, her eyes wide.

Slowly, Ben reached into his bag and pulled out the bottle of morphine. Or what was left of it. The glass jar had shattered. Ben remembered the crack he had heard when he fell off the cliff that morning, and now he had gotten his answer. He looked in his bag again and cursed even louder when he realized that all of the jars containing liquid medicine had shattered and contaminated one another. The only one that had survived was the tiny vial of antivenom, but that wasn't of any use.

"Bad news, guys..." he choked out. "We're going to have to do this without morphine."

Caleb groaned and closed his eyes. Jen slowly moved so that Caleb's head was in her lap, and she would be in position to hold his arms down. Andrew pressed his sleeve to his nose, which had started bleeding from maintaining the light for so long.

"Let's get this over with," said Ben as he reached into his bag and pulled out and put on a clean pair of surgical gloves. As soon as he picked up a scalpel, however, someone slowly came into the tent.

It was Christopher.

And if looks could kill, then he would have dropped dead on the spot.

"What do _you_ want?" snarled Jen, her voice practically dripping with venom.

"I... I want to help," Christopher said quietly.

"How could you _possibly_ do anything to help?" exclaimed Jen, louder this time.

"I can make him sleep through the operation."

Jen was quiet for a moment before looking down at Caleb, who was looking up at her with wide, pleading eyes.

"Please..." he whispered.

Slowly, Jen nodded. "Okay..."

Christopher slowly walked forward, taking care not to look anyone in the eye. He then carefully knelt down next to Caleb and gently placed his hand on his shoulder.

"I want you to sleep until the operation is over," he whispered to him.

Almost instantly, Caleb's eyes closed and his body relaxed. The look of pain almost completely left his face.

"Thanks," Jen muttered quickly. "Now get out."

Christopher nodded and quickly left.

"Well that makes things slightly less complicated," said Ben. He twisted the scalpel in his hand a bit before looking back at Jen. "You still might want to hold his arms, just in case." Jen nodded and did as he said.

Ben took a deep breath to steady his hand, and then he cut a slit right through the bullet wound.

Almost immediately, Caleb tensed up and a look of pain crossed his face, but he didn't wake up.

Ben cut another slit across the wound, creating an X with the bullet wound right in the center.

Andrew noticed that Caleb's breathing had sped up a bit. The poor kid could still feel the pain.

Ben put down the scalpel and picked up a piece of gauze, which he used to dab at the wound to remove the blood and pus that had begun to leak out, releasing a foul smell into the air. He then picked up a long thin pair of tweezers.

It was at that moment that Andrew averted his eyes, not wanting to watch for fear of throwing up.

Using the tweezers, Ben reached into the bloody wound and fished around for the bullet. Not only was the sound horrific, but the smell of infection and decay grew stronger. Caleb let out a low groan, and Andrew noticed that Jen was having to hold him down.

"There it is..." muttered Ben after a minute of searching. He slowly removed the tweezers, taking the bullet out. It was covered with blood, of course, but there was something else... It almost looked like the bullet was dripping with sticky, black sludge.

Ben's face immediately drained of all color, and his eye widened. "Oh shit, this is not good."

"What is it?" exclaimed Jen.

Ben held the bullet up a bit higher for her to see.

"It's the Pitch."

Jen gasped and clutched her chest as if she was having a heart attack. "Oh my god..." she muttered, suddenly looking as if she were about to pass out.

Ben quickly turned to Andrew. "Here, take this," he said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a small stone mortar and pestle. "Go find a piece of wood, turn it into charcoal, crush it in the bowl, and bring it back. And _hurry_!"

Andrew nodded and quickly left the tent, taking the light with him. He ran into the trees, ignoring the somber stares of the others, and started searching. A moment later, he found a small, dry piece of wood. He picked it up and it immediately caught on fire. As soon as it turned into charcoal, he put it in the bowl and used the stone stick to crush it into fine charcoal dust. He then ran back to the tent.

As soon as he made it back, he noticed that Ben had found a flashlight, and he was cleaning the wound with rubbing alcohol. Jen looked like she was on the verge of having a panic attack, and Caleb was covered in sweat and trembling. His breathing had become more ragged and forced, and his sleep was fitful. One of them had also put a small towel in his mouth to keep him from hurting himself or crying out.

"Here," said Andrew breathlessly, handing the bowl to Ben before bringing back the bright light.

Ben nodded and poured some water from a bottle into the bowl. He mixed it up for a minute before reaching into his seemingly bottomless bag and pulling out a dropper. Then he collected some of the charcoal water and dripped it right into the wound.

Caleb gasped and started breathing faster, his hands clenching into fists. Jen gently stroked his hair to try and calm him down. Andrew thought he heard her whispering something, but he couldn't be sure.

Ben repeated the process, every so often dabbing at the wound. Andrew noticed that the piece of gauze would draw out a black substance, but he didn't know if it was the charcoal or the Pitch. Another thing he noticed, however, was that the black streaks radiating out from the wound seemed to be disappearing, drawing back in closer to the wound.

Finally, Andrew summoned the nerve to speak.

"I'm probably gonna regret asking this," he said quietly, "but what's the Pitch?"

Ben glanced up at Jen, but she just shook her head. "You tell him," she said.

Ben nodded and glanced at Andrew, all the while still cleaning the wound. "Caleb is the last Seer alive for a reason," he said. "Do you know why?"

Andrew gulped and wished he had studied his history when he was in school. "Well... I know that it's supposed to be an extinct Grace..."

Ben nodded. "The Seeing Grace is the only one that can only be passed on through inheritance. That's why there were so few Seers to begin with, because most of them never lived past their first year."

"You can always tell if someone is going to be a Seer, because they're born with one silver eye and one gold eye," said Jen. "The silver eye turns bright purple, and the gold changes to something else."

"About thirty years ago, there were a couple hundred Seers alive in the world," Ben continued. "But then people started to get paranoid – especially the Ungraced. They thought that the ability to see the future shouldn't belong to humans, so..."

"It was genocide," said Jen bluntly. "They killed every single Seer in the world... and their families. They didn't want to take the chance that the gene would be passed on."

"That was when a couple crazy bastards invented the Pitch," said Ben. "It's a special type of poison that doesn't hurt anybody except Seers."

"What does it do?" asked Andrew cautiously.

"In everyone else, it just gives you a mild fever, no matter how strong the dosage," said Ben. "But... it's much more deadly to Seers. It causes really high fevers, which is what kills them. There are some different types of Pitch, but they move at different speeds. We're lucky, because if this had been one of the faster versions, he would have been dead within minutes."

"Is that what those black streaks are?" asked Andrew, gesturing to the streaks which had now receded back within a few inches of the wound.

Ben nodded. "It's a good thing we caught that when we did, because if we had waited a few more minutes, the poison would have reached his heart, and well..." He let the sentence hang.

Andrew slowly nodded, and silence returned as Ben finished cleaning out the wound. A few minutes later, the black streaks had completely disappeared. Ben took a deep breath and sat back, stretching his sore back, which resulted in several wicked cracking noises.

"How did you do that...?" asked Andrew. "I thought you said you couldn't heal infections or poison."

"I can't," said Ben, "but like I said, I know how to get rid of them. Charcoal dust absorbs any poison. It hurts like hell, but it'll save your life."

"Good to know," muttered Andrew.

Ben nodded and began stitching up the cuts he had made, unable to heal them with his Grace because of the infection. A moment later, he turned to Jen. "Help me sit him up."

Jen nodded and gently lifted Caleb into a somewhat sitting position so that Ben could wrap the bandages around his abdomen.

It was only then, now that the panic had worn off, that Andrew noticed something. Because Jen was holding Caleb upright, he could see his back. At first he thought it was just the light playing tricks on his eyes, but then he realized that what he was seeing was real.

Caleb's back was covered in long, white scars.

Andrew's eyes widened as he tried to imagine what could have possibly caused that kind of damage. He also tried to imagine how much pain those injuries must constantly give him. Now it actually made sense why Caleb was always slouched over.

Right at that moment, Ben finished bandaging the wound, and Jen laid him back down. That was when Andrew also noticed that there were several deep scars crisscrossing his chest and shoulders, seeming to extend from the ones on his back. He also saw that Caleb's right arm bore as many scars as his back. And he couldn't help but notice one particularly deep scar stretching across his right wrist.

One more thing he noticed was that the kid was completely emaciated, and it looked like his ribs were about to tear through his scarred skin.

Not wanting to get caught staring, Andrew turned to Ben. "H-how come he didn't bleed out? I thought bullet wounds were supposed to bleed a lot."

"Depends on where you get shot," he said. "The bullet missed all the important stuff, which is why it didn't bleed as much. It's also why he isn't dead. It was close, though. If it had been even an inch higher or to the side..."

"So what do we do now...?" asked Jen quietly as she pulled a blanket up around her brother.

Ben was quiet for a moment, deep in thought. "Jen, I need to talk to you."

Jen nodded and gently laid Caleb down. She looked at Andrew. "Will you stay here with him? In case he wakes up?"

Andrew nodded.

"Thank you," said Jen. Then she followed Ben outside. He led her away from the tents to the darker part of the clearing.

"I'm not gonna sugarcoat this," said Ben. "There's a very high possibility that he won't make it through the night."

She had been dreading hearing that. "What is it...?"

"It could be the infection that will get him. I mean, when a wound looks like _that_, there isn't much I can do. I don't think we have to worry about blood loss, but we'll definitely have to make sure the Pitch doesn't relapse. And if that doesn't get him, then it'll be the cold."

This caught her off guard. "What do you mean the cold?"

"It's twelve degrees at the moment, Jen, and if he gets sick when his immune system is compromised like this, then he will die. No doubt about it."

Jen took a deep breath, blinking back tears.

"He didn't have much of a fever, so if we can just make sure he stays warm, then the chances of him surviving the night will be higher..." said Ben quietly. "Not much higher, because that infection he's got is a fucking monster, but it'll at least give him a chance..."

Slowly, Jen nodded. That was when her sharp eyes detected movement. She looked up and saw Christopher emerge from his own tent.

Almost immediately, Jen's anguish was replaced with rage. She flew across the clearing, grabbed Christopher by the throat, and slammed him into a tree. It all happened too fast for Christopher to take in.

"Why did you do it..." snarled Jen, her face only inches from Christopher's.

"We... h-had to... k-keep... moving..." he choked out, barely able to breathe because of Jen's death grip.

"It wasn't your place to decide," she growled, her grip tightening threateningly. "And now my little brother is dying because of you."

"Jen!" exclaimed Ben, who had finally processed what had happened. He was standing a few feet behind her, ready to hold her back if she tried something.

Jen glanced over her shoulder at Ben before looking back at Christopher.

"If he dies," she said slowly, "then I will kill you."

Christopher knew the look in her eyes. She wasn't bluffing. And he was terrified. Slowly, he nodded, and she dropped him to the ground before stalking back towards the tent.

* * *

Andrew had heard every word they had exchanged. It helped that it was dead silent, and he had abnormally good hearing.

When Jen came back, Andrew slowly stood up. "Jen, I think I can help," he said. However, she shook her head.

"It's okay," she said quietly, the anger disappearing from her eyes. "Thanks for helping, but I think we'll be fine..."

Slowly, Andrew nodded. He turned and left the tent, nearly bumping into Ben as he left. He waited a few seconds, and then Ben came back out.

"I think she snapped," he whispered to Andrew before walking to the last tent. Inside, the twins were sleeping, curled up together like puppies. Ben picked up two spare blankets and handed one to Andrew before dropping to the ground and curling up against the cold.

"Try and get some sleep," he said. "Tomorrow's gonna be rough..."

Andrew knew exactly what he meant by that. He knew that the odds of Caleb surviving the night were next to nonexistent. That was why Jen had made them leave. She wanted to stay with him for his last few hours...

With a sigh, Andrew quietly laid down and wrapped himself in his blanket, wishing there was something he could do.

* * *

It was just around midnight when Andrew woke up with a gasp. He had been having a nightmare, but he couldn't remember what it was.

Slowly and quietly, Andrew wrapped his blanket around his shoulders and exited the tent. He stood outside, breathing in the icy midnight air, his breath creating small clouds, but he still wasn't calming down. All the cold did was burn his lungs.

That was when he remembered what had happened to Caleb.

With a sigh, Andrew wrapped his blanket tighter around himself. He held out his hand and made a small flame appear on the end of his thumb as if it were a candle. Fire always had a way of calming him down. He wasn't sure if it was the light or the heat, but it was soothing.

Then something sparked in his head.

As quiet as he could, he made his way to the tent with Caleb and Jen. He entered slowly and saw that Caleb was bundled up in blankets, and Jen was lying right next to him. They were both asleep, but Andrew couldn't help but notice how pale Caleb was.

Andrew took the blanket off of his shoulders and laid it on top of them. Then he sat down next to Caleb and gently took hold of one of the blankets. A moment later, Andrew saw his fingers start to glow red as he used his Grace, taking away the actual fire but still putting out the heat.

A few minutes later, the entire blanket had warmed up considerably, and Caleb had stopped shivering.

Still, Andrew continued. He felt a headache start to form from the extensive use of his Grace, but that didn't matter at the moment.

All that mattered was keeping this kid alive.

This continued for half an hour before Andrew started to get dizzy and tired. He laid down, but he still continued to put out fire heat.

And then, just before he fell asleep, he saw Caleb open his eyes.

"Thank you..." he whispered to Andrew.

Andrew only had the energy to smile before losing consciousness.

* * *

_A/N: They're still not out of the woods yet, guys. ;) But at least you finally got to learn about the Pitch and why Caleb is the only Seer left._

_Now for the question: what do you think will happen next? Mwa. Ha. Ha._


	10. Cold

_A/N: I did my research. I know what I'm talking about. Kinda. Like I said, there's always method to the madness. Sometimes._

_Also, want to know something that'll blow your mind? Stay tuned for the end of the chapter._

* * *

**Gracepunk**

Cold. Darkness. Nothing but a void of cold and darkness and icy pain. And he couldn't move. He was paralyzed. He couldn't see. He couldn't breathe.

It felt like he was drowning.

He couldn't breathe.

Nothing but the cold.

So cold...

So dark...

Nothing.

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

"Hey! Andrew, can you hear me? Andrew...?"

He followed the voice, and a moment later, the darkness began to disappear. Nothing else changed though. It was still freezing cold, and he still couldn't move or breathe.

After a minute, he was slowly able to blink his eyes open, and he saw Ben kneeling in front of him.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, dumbass," said Ben with a smile of relief.

Andrew struggled to focus on Ben, but his eyesight was a bit blurry and unfocused. He opened his mouth to ask what happened, but he couldn't make any words come out.

"You're probably wondering why you can't talk or move, aren't you?" asked Ben, his smile disappearing.

Andrew managed to force a nod.

"Well, you somehow managed to give yourself hypothermia. It's actually incredible that you're still alive right now!"

"W-why...?" Andrew choked out painfully.

"Because your body temperature is about 80 degrees, which can be lethal," he said. "But I guess your Grace is what kept you alive. Your temperature is rising again though, so you should regain the ability to move soon."

Andrew slowly nodded. That was when he realized that he was bundled up in blankets, and the twins were on either side of him, snuggled up against him. Then he noticed that he and the twins were sitting on Josh's lap. The sun had already come up, and it was reflecting brightly against the freshly fallen snow.

"So how did this happen?" asked Ben.

Andrew shifted through his hazy memories to try and remember. That was when he realized he had spent all night putting out fire heat. That must have been what lowered his body temperature. But why was he-

Andrew gasped and sat bolt upright as well as he could. However, when he gasped, he sucked in a lung full of the icy cold air, which sent him into a coughing fit. The twins helped him sit upright so that he could breathe.

Finally, once the coughing stopped, he choked out a question. "W-what h-happened to C-Caleb...?"

A small smile appeared on Ben's face. "He made it. He's alive... for now."

Andrew breathed a sigh of relief, mainly for the young Seer, but also for Jen.

Ben nodded. "The Pitch hasn't relapsed yet, and his infection hasn't gotten any worse. He only has a slight fever, but I think he'll be okay." He thought for a minute before quickly walking to the nearest tree and knocking on it three times. "Don't wanna jinx it."

Andrew rolled his eyes, and one of the twins giggled silently.

* * *

Over the next hour, Andrew slowly regained the ability to move, see, breathe, and think clearly as his temperature returned to the usual three degrees above normal. There wasn't much activity around the small camp, and it actually worried Andrew that they hadn't packed up and moved on yet.

Just as he was about to ask someone, however, the activity picked up, and the rest of the Gracepunks came out of their respective tents.

Caleb and Jen were the last two to emerge. Caleb still looked deathly pale and exhausted, but it was a major improvement from the day before. He was bundled up in blankets, but he was walking on his own, and his limp was less noticeable. His feet had been bandaged too, and he had covered the bandages with his socks. Jen was walking right next to him, ready to act if he fell.

Not a minute later, the tents were down, the fire was kicked out, and they were on the move.

Andrew noticed that no one was talking. Christopher was walking in the very front of the group, and Caleb and Jen were near the back. Andrew himself was the last one in the group, and he found himself walking next to James, who was so focused on something in his right hand that he almost ran into a low-hanging tree branch.

"What are you doing...?" Andrew whispered to him after a few more minutes.

James held up a small device that looked like a single miniature helicopter propeller with a tiny motor on the bottom, along with two small hooks.

Andrew cocked his head to the side. "What is it?"

"Well, as soon as I can get it to work, it'll fly," said James. "However... it's very difficult to build with only one hand while walking. Even harder because it's cold, and even harder still because I'm left-handed." He held up his left hand for just a moment, staring at the cane. "I supposed I could switch hands, but I really don't want to fall over."

Andrew nodded. "Anything I can do to help?"

James nodded and held out the device, and Andrew took it gently in his hands. James immediately began fiddling with the device under the propeller, and Andrew saw sparks coming off of his fingers. A moment later, he picked it up. The little propeller started to spin.

"Perfect," he muttered.

"What's it for?" asked Andrew.

James handed him the little flying device. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. It took Andrew a second to realize that it was the head of a bullet.

"I-is that-"

James nodded. "Yes, it's the bullet that Ben removed from Caleb's side. It's been washed of course."

Andrew took a half step away from the inventor.

"The thing is... it's got a tracker in it," said James, inspecting the bullet closely. "The Gracebeasts are using it to track our exact location at this second."

Andrew almost fell down. "Wait, what?!"

"Calm down," said James, taking the device back from Andrew and clipping the bullet to it with the two hooks. "Because we had to take a detour back at Emerald Valley, they'll interpret our path wrong. And that's why I built this little flying device. It'll hopefully lead them off of our trail." He held the device up, and the little propeller took it into the air, along with the bullet and the tracker. A second later, it buzzed off in the opposite direction of where they were heading.

"Well, okay then..." muttered Andrew, not sure how to respond. "I really hope that plan doesn't backfire."

* * *

Felix was staring at one of the many display screen in the cockpit of the small airship. There was a drone to his left and right, both of whom where flying the airship. He, however, was staring at one screen in particular: the screen that displayed the location of the tracker.

Only a few hours ago, Warren had finally woken up, and even though he was delirious from his fever, he had a few small moments of clarity where he was able to tell Felix that he had shot two of the Gracelings – completely by accident, he had mentioned.

Warren had made no mention of the Seer.

After he had lost consciousness again, Felix went straight to the Baron and asked for permission to take out an airship to look for the group again, telling him that two of them were wounded, and the group would probably be much slower and less stealthy. As he expected, the Baron had told him to hurry up.

Now he was standing staring out the window of his favorite airship, a small but fast dark one, labeled as Number 22. On the screen in front of him, he saw a blinking light on a map, showing the location of the tracker and the direction in which it was heading. Another blinking light indicated where the ship itself was.

They were right on a collision course.

"Okay, if we keep going straight, we should see them right up ahead," he said, more to himself than the unresponsive drones.

He glanced out the window again, but when he looked back down at the screen, the direction of the tracker had changed, and it was now heading the other way.

Felix swore under his breath. "Turn around, head the other way," he said to the drones.

"Why?" asked the drone on the left, the one responsible for steering the ship. The drone's voice was so heavily mechanized that Felix had to take a moment to decipher it.

"They changed directions," he said. "We have to follow them."

The drone on the left made a crackly noise that sounded like a sigh as he began to turn the ship around, while the drone on the right, the one responsible for altering the height of the ship, made a noise that sounded like an animal choking. Felix could only assume it was a laugh.

They continued on.

James' trap had worked.

* * *

The group of Gracepunks had been walking in silence only a minute before Caleb gasped. Everyone turned to look at him, and they saw that he was staring up at the sky, a look of horror plastered on his face.

"What is it?" asked Jen, trying to hide the concern in her voice.

"Hide..."

Not a second later, the group of Gracepunks were all completely hidden in the bushes. Then, only five seconds after Caleb's warning, a silent dark airship flew overhead. It didn't stop, though.

And if it hadn't been for Caleb's warning, they would have all been spotted.

After regrouping, they continued on, but Andrew couldn't help but look over his shoulder every few minutes.

He knew the ship would be coming back soon.

* * *

They walked on for another hour before Caleb started to succumb to the pain and exhaustion. Andrew, who was walking right behind him, noticed that he had started to stumble, and his limp became more pronounced; he barely put any pressure at all on his left leg.

When they stopped for food, Caleb wouldn't eat anything, no matter how much Jen begged or threatened.

Over the next hour, Andrew noticed that his asthma inhaler made more appearances, and finally, he stopped putting it in his pocket and carried it in his hand. He would cough weakly, as if it hurt. Andrew just hoped that the kid wouldn't have a serious asthma attack. He had gotten even paler, and his whole demeanor screamed exhaustion.

Finally, after another hour, Caleb's knees gave out, and Jen and Andrew both caught him before he could fall to the snowy ground. Ben appeared in front of them, and he pressed his hand to Caleb's forehead.

"Caleb, can you look up?" asked Ben.

Slowly, Caleb raised his head, and Andrew saw that his eyes were glassy and unfocused, a result of his fever. He also noticed that he was gasping, taking in shallow, rapid breaths.

Ben bit his lip, a look of concern washing over his face. "Dammit..." he muttered under his breath.

"What is it?" asked Jen, her voice quiet but saturated with worry.

"I think I know, but I can't be sure," said Ben. He reached into his bag and pulled out a towel, which he gently used to cover Caleb's head.

"Keep your mouth and nose covered," Ben said to him. "Don't breathe in any more cold air."

Caleb nodded weakly, holding onto the towel to keep it in place.

Ben nodded and turned to Josh. "Can you carry him?"

Josh nodded and gently picked Caleb up off the ground, cradling him in his large arms.

"We should stop soon," said Ben to the rest of the group. "Right after dark. No fires, not with that airship still around."

There was a murmur of agreement, and the group moved on. Jen was up walking right next to Josh, quietly talking to Caleb. Ben fell back and walked with Andrew.

"What exactly is it?" asked Andrew.

Ben bit his lip again. "Let me hold off on a diagnosis until we're somewhere relatively safe, or at least until I can look again in the light."

Andrew nodded. "Just... one more question."

"Yeah?"

"Why the hell do you have a towel in your bag?"

Ben cracked a smile. "The universe is a lot safer if you bring a towel."

Andrew couldn't help but smile, and they hurried on as the forest grew darker around them.

* * *

Felix repeatedly smacked a hand-held device against the wall of the ship.

"Why. Isn't. This. Damn. Thing. _Working_?!" he exclaimed. The object he was hitting against the wall was an infrared gun, which had chosen that exact moment to malfunction.

"Do either of you tin cans have heat vision?" asked Felix angrily.

Both drones shook their heads, no.

Felix growled and threw the device to the ground before stomping on it with the heel of his boot, shattering it.

"Well. I am sure it will work now," said the drone on the right.

Felix threw a piece of the broken device at the drone, and it bounced harmlessly against it's stainless steel head. "Whose dumbass idea was it to give you sarcasm?!"

"One of us had to be entertaining," said the drone on the left. "Your friend Warren gave him sarcasm."

Felix rolled his eyes and collapsed in a chair. It was already dark out, and they couldn't continue their search without the infrared camera.

"I guess we should wait out here for tonight," said Felix after a minute. "They'll show themselves in the morning..."

The drones nodded and lowered the airship into a clearing, where they turned off all the lights. And waited.

* * *

They finally reached a large clearing after dark. The temperature had plummeted again, but there was no snow this time. The skies were clear, and if the situation had been less serious, Andrew would have taken the time to admire how many stars he could see in the crisp night sky.

Andrew joined Ben, Caleb, and Jen inside the tent, and he brought back the light, using the same technique he had used the night before, now that his Grace had recovered from the excessive use.

Caleb was lying curled up in Jen's lap, bundled in blankets, shivering and feverish. He was barely breathing, and his lips were tinged slightly blue. He was muttering under his breath, delirious from the fever. Ben had unwrapped the bandages, and he was inspecting the wound. Andrew noticed that his face was pale.

"Ben, what's wrong?" asked Jen, her voice strained.

Ben stared at the wound for a moment before laying a blanket over Caleb. "I was afraid of this. Not only is the wound infected, but the Pitch is relapsing. And..."

"And _what_?" demanded Jen.

"And... he's got pneumonia," said Ben quietly. "Any more exposure to the cold air will probably kill him. We can't keep moving him like this."

Andrew gulped. "So what are we going to do...?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

All three of them looked down to see that Caleb had come back to his senses, or at least had a moment of clarity.

"What?" asked Jen.

"It's obvious," said Caleb again. "You have to leave me. Let me get captured by the Gracebeasts."

* * *

_A/N: The answer to what will blow your mind: every story or book that you've ever read is simply a collection of 26 letters arranged in different ways._

_Has your mind been blown yet?_

_Also... now the good part starts. ;)_


	11. Captured

_A/N: I should probably write for my other stories, but ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY STOP INSPIRATION! So enjoy what happens when everything goes wrong! Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I did not have the patience to go back and read through the whole thing, because it's a freaking monster chapter. Holy crap._

* * *

**Gracepunk**

"No. Absolutely not!" exclaimed Jen.

"Jen, we don't really have much of a choice," said Caleb. "_I_ don't have a choice."

Jen shook her head. "No, there's gotta be something else we can do!"

"You heard what Ben said," Caleb coughed out. "We have to keep moving, but I can't keep going. And if you guys stay here for too long then they'll find you..."

"But..." Jen looked helplessly between Ben and Andrew; neither of them would meet her gaze. A moment later, she stood up and quickly left the tent. Ben glanced at Andrew and Caleb before quickly standing and going after her

Caleb looked over at Andrew. "You're gonna have to go calm her down..." he said.

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "But I thought Ben was gonna go talk her down."

"Just wait five seconds and then go talk to her," he insisted. "She'll listen to you."

Andrew shook his head. "We barely know each other. Why would she-"

Right at that moment, Ben limped back into the tent, clutching his chest. There was a large bruise on his cheek, and he grimaced when he knelt down.

"What's the damage this time?" asked Caleb, a small smile creeping onto his pale face.

"Let's see," gasped Ben, still clutching his side. "Four broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken jaw that's already healed. And she broke my ribs with only one punch. Left-handed, too."

Caleb laughed a bit, but the laugh turned into a rough, dry cough.

Meanwhile, Andrew sat on the opposite side of the tent, his eye twitching. Now he was absolutely terrified to go try and talk to Jen.

Caleb must have sensed his apprehension, because he turned to look at him once the coughing fit stopped. "Don't worry," he said. "She only hits Ben and Josh."

Ben nodded.

Andrew gulped and looked at Caleb. "You still want me to go try and talk to her?"

Caleb nodded.

"Fine," said Andrew, standing up and leaving the tent, taking the light with him.

Outside, the dark night had closed in around them. Everybody was in their respective tents, and there was nearly no light.

Andrew shivered and pulled his jacket up around himself. The night was quiet, though, with no wind. And because it was so quiet, Andrew's abnormally good hearing picked up a faint sound coming from the trees. He quietly followed the noise for a while until he reached a small clearing. There, sitting on a fallen log in the middle of the clearing was Jen. She was facing away from him, but by the way she was sniffling, he could tell she was crying.

She must have heard his footsteps, because without turning, she said, "Go away, Ben, or I'll blind you."

"Not Ben, and please don't blind me," said Andrew. Jen glanced over her shoulder at him before turning back around, holding perfectly still.

Andrew hesitated for a moment before slowly moving forward and sitting down next to her on the log, giving her plenty of room so as not to provoke her.

They sat in perfect silence for a few minutes before Jen finally spoke up.

"Why are you here?" she asked coldly.

"I came to make sure you were alright," said Andrew.

Jen glared at him. "Alright? My little brother is dying, and the only way he'll survive for more than 24 hours is to get captured by Gracebeasts. And you're asking me if I'm _alright_?!"

Andrew scooted away from her a bit. She may have been stronger than him, but he was faster. He knew. They had raced back at the cathedral. It seemed like it had happened a lifetime ago.

Jen looked like she was about to continue yelling, but the fire suddenly left her eyes, and she sighed, turning away and putting her head in her hands. Slowly, Andrew scooted closer. He thought about putting his arm around her, but he didn't want to have it snapped off.

They sat in silence for a minute before Jen finally spoke.

"I can't let this happen," she said, not lifting her eyes from the snowy ground. "They'll kill him. I know they will."

"You can't be sure of that..." said Andrew quietly. "If he stays out here, then there isn't any chance for him."

"I know," said Jen, her voice nothing more than a weak whisper. "What if I went with him, though?"

"From what I heard, you're pretty famous for killing drones and Gracebeasts," said Andrew. "I don't think they would let you get away with that. And besides, you can't help him if your dead or in prison."

"I know, I know," said Jen, her tone becoming more frustrated. "It's just... I've been doing my best to protect him since we were kids. And it hurts that there's nothing I can do to save him now. I mean... you saw what happened to him the last time I couldn't protect him."

Andrew raised an eyebrow, not sure what she was referring to. Jen looked up at him.

"I know you saw the scars on his back," she said. "That's what happened the last time I wasn't there for him."

Andrew went slightly pale, embarrassed that he had been caught staring. "I was... I was wondering how that happened..." he muttered, staring down at his feet.

Jen nodded. "It happened a long time ago," she said. "About nine years ago, actually. I was eight, and Caleb was six. That was the year our mom died. I can't exactly remember what happened to her, but I know she got sick, and she never got better. Then after she died, our dad got really abusive. I think he blamed us for her death...

"One day I was at school, and Caleb was home sick... When I got home later... he was on the floor bleeding, and our dad was standing over him with a whip. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen, jumped between them, took two hits to the back, then... I killed him. I killed my own father. I threw the knife at him, and it hit him in the throat. Killed him instantly."

Andrew sat wide-eyed, listening intently and trying not to let any emotions appear on his face.

"After that," she continued, "I took Caleb, and we ran off. Somehow we made it into the forest without getting caught, but I didn't know what to do. I was only eight. I couldn't take him to a hospital because of his Grace, and then things got even worse when his wounds got infected. At some point I think I got bitten by a spider, because I was kind of delirious by the time Ben and Henry found us. I'm pretty sure I stabbed Ben in the chest.

"After that, they helped heal us, and their parents took us in and promised not to tell anybody about what happened. They even helped keep Caleb's Grace a secret...

"I still have nightmares about that. That I wasn't able to help him, and he got hurt because I wasn't there. That's why I... I can't..."

She stopped and bit her lip, holding back tears. It didn't last. A minute later, her head was in her hands, and she was crying. Andrew slowly scooted closer and put his arm around her shoulders. She turned and hugged him, crying into his shoulder.

They stayed like that for several minutes until the crying finally stopped.

"Andrew..." she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Andrew slowly nodded. They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Jen spoke up again.

"We should probably head back," she said. "I bet they think I killed you."

Andrew smiled a bit, and then he stood up, holding out his hand. Jen took it, and he helped her up. They walked back to the campsite. Jen didn't let go of his hand.

When they made it back to the campsite, it was deathly quiet. Jen and Andrew silently made their way over to the large tent that had a small bit of light coming from inside. Right before they entered, Jen squeezed Andrew's hand before letting go and quickly ducking into the tent, trying to avoid letting any cold air in. Andrew followed after her and closed the entrance, activating his Grace so that heat radiated out from him. He noticed that his arms started to glow a bit orange as he did so.

Ben sat on the ground next to Caleb, who had slipped back into his fevered delirium while they were gone. The poor kid was deathly pale and sweaty, and he was weakly gasping for breath, moving a bit in his sleep. Ben was dabbing at his forehead with a wet cloth to try and keep the fever down. He tiredly looked up at them when they came in.

"Good to see you're still alive," he said to Andrew, too tired to add a sarcastic tone to his voice.

Jen knelt down next to her brother and took the cloth. She gently brushed his dark hair back before dabbing at his forehead.

"So how's he doing?" asked Andrew, kneeling down next to Ben.

Ben shook his head. "Not good," he said. "Look." He gently pulled the blanket away from Caleb's side, revealing the unbandaged bullet wound. The black streaks had returned, a sign that the Pitch had relapsed, and was spreading.

"Did you try that charcoal technique?" asked Andrew, his eyes wide, not only at the sight of the Pitch, but at the infected bullet wound.

"I tried," said Ben, "but it didn't work. The infection's too strong, and his immune system is too weak to fight much longer. Also, he almost stopped breathing a while ago. I think it was an asthma attack, because his inhaler stopped it."

Andrew glanced over at Jen to see her reaction, but her face was stony and devoid of emotions. It was probably easier for her that way.

"And... there's something else," said Ben, sounding impossibly _more_ distressed.

"What is it?" asked Andrew.

"While you guys were gone, James came and visited. He said he was going to go with Caleb."

"What?!" exclaimed Andrew and Jen at the same time.

Ben nodded and absently picked at a loose thread on his jacket sleeve. "He said he was slowing everyone down with his bad leg, and that Caleb needed someone to look after him. So he's going to stay behind and get captured with Caleb."

Andrew didn't know how to respond. He was devastated that they would be losing both Caleb _and_ James, but he was also a bit relieved that Caleb would have someone with him.

They were all quiet for a bit before Ben lethargically got to his feet. "I would suggest getting some sleep," he said. "It'll be an early morning and a long day tomorrow..." Then he quickly left.

The night dragged on slowly, and Andrew and Jen didn't get much sleep. They both stayed awake, Andrew providing light and heat, and Jen calming Caleb down whenever he groaned in pain or stirred in his fitful sleep.

Throughout the night, his condition steadily got worse. His fever was dangerously high, and he was barely breathing. Sometimes he would cry out in fear or pain, and Jen would have to calm him.

At one point, he was hit with a coughing fit so violent that he ended up coughing up blood. At that point, Andrew had gotten Ben, who told them that the Pitch had gotten into his lungs and was destroying them. That had been a tense hour, because Ben had to use several needles and a knife to perform a complicated procedure and remove most of the infected blood from his lungs. Then he had to give Caleb a small blood transfusion – luckily, he and Jen had the same blood type – to replace the infected blood. After that, he healed as much of the damaged lungs as he could, and then he stayed up for another hour to make sure the poison had been deterred.

Andrew and Jen ended up sleeping in shifts just to keep an eye on him. Neither one of them got more than an hour of sleep that night.

Finally, after what seemed like an endless night, the sky began to grow lighter. That was when Andrew went around and woke everybody up. They had to be on the move and far away from the camp by the time the Gracebeasts arrived.

While Andrew was waking everybody up, Jen gently woke her brother.

"It's time, isn't it?" he asked, his voice hoarse and weak.

Jen nodded.

Caleb was silent for a minute, his green and purple eyes unfocused. Then he reached up and unclasped the chain that was hanging around his neck, the one holding his key.

"Will you hold onto this?" he asked her, holding out his key.

Jen shook her head. "I can't," she said, her voice cracking a bit as she tried to contain her emotions. "You know I can't. I'm not a Keeper."

"You are now," said Caleb, putting the key in her hand.

Jen looked at Caleb with wide eyes. She understood what he was saying.

He was saying he was going to die.

"Caleb..."

"Go help the others," he said, looking away. "Please..."

Jen slowly nodded, and a second later, Andrew came back in. Almost immediately, Jen left.

"What's wrong?" asked Andrew, kneeling down next to the dying Seer.

"She's upset because she and I both know that I'm probably going to die in the next few days," he said. "Promise me that you'll look after her?"

Andrew nodded sadly. "I'll keep her out of trouble..." he said.

Caleb smiled weakly. "Look out for the twins, too. Keep an eye on them if you find a new place, because they'll run off and explore. A-and watch out for Ben, too. He doesn't know how to handle situations that well. And for god sake, watch out for Josh and Christopher. They may be idiots, but they do care..."

Andrew nodded. "I'll do my best..." he said.

Caleb nodded, and his focus started to drift away. Andrew almost thought he had fallen asleep again when he spoke.

"You're going to save us all, y'know," he said.

"What do you mean?" asked Andrew, raising an eyebrow.

"It's true," said Caleb, nodded as he stared off into space. "Because if you don't save us, no one else will..."

Before Andrew could ask what he meant, the twins quietly entered the tent. When Caleb saw them, he struggled into a sitting position, and the twins came over and hugged him. Andrew scooted all the way to the back of the tent to give them a bit of privacy.

The twins clung to Caleb as if it would prevent him from being captured.

"It'll be okay," he whispered to them. They only responded by looking up at him with large, sad blue eyes.

Caleb scanned the tent quickly before spotting his bag. He painfully reached over and grabbed it, then handed it to the twins.

_Can I trust you to use these when you need to?_ he signed to them as they looked wide-eyed into the bag. They quickly nodded and closed the bag. Erika put it over her shoulder.

At that point, Andrew looked at his watch. "Guys," he said, "it's time. We have to go."

* * *

The goodbye's were quick, mainly because nobody wanted to be seen crying. Andrew built a large bonfire, using mostly green stuff that would smoke like crazy when lit on fire. It would also provide enough warmth to keep Caleb from suffocating in the cold October air. As soon as it was lit, the others would have to leave.

Caleb and Jen hugged for what would most likely be the last time.

As soon as the sun broke the horizon, Andrew lit the fire, and the group moved on.

James and Caleb remained sitting in the clearing, close to the fire. Caleb was bundled up in a single blanket, and he was leaning against James' shoulder, as he lacked the strength to sit up on his own. James had his arm around the small boy's shoulder to offer comfort and support so that Caleb wouldn't have to lie on the cold, unforgiving ground.

The group had only left the clearing ten minutes previously when the air around them became electric. The airship had found them and electrified the air around them to prevent them from running.

"Keep your eyes closed, Caleb," whispered James, hugging the small boy a bit tighter. Caleb weakly nodded, not opening his already closed eyes.

The dark airship appeared over the clearing and slowly lowered down through the trees. It was small enough to fit in the clearing, and when it landed, two drones immediately ran out of it. They ran through the field of electricity and grabbed the two Gracepunks.

The drone that grabbed James seemed to be in a bad mood, because it dragged him to his feet. When it grabbed him, his glasses fell off, and the drone stepped on them.

The other drone was a bit more gentle. It carefully picked up the small semi-conscious Gracepunk and held him instead of dragging him along.

They were brought to the entrance of the airship, the electric field vanishing now that the drones had their prisoners.

In the entrance of the airship stood Felix.

"I think this one is broken," the drone holding Caleb said to Felix.

"Get him inside," said Felix. The drone nodded and carried Caleb inside the airship. Felix then turned and walked right up to James. "I know you," he said.

"Then you'll have to forgive me if I don't recognize you," said James sarcastically. "Someone just broke my glasses."

_WHAM!_

James staggered backwards as Felix backhanded him across the face. Felix had hit him so hard that his hat fell off. Then, before he had a chance to balance himself, Felix grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him into the airship, where he tossed him down next to Caleb, who was still only barely conscious.

The drones took control of the airship and closed the door before quickly lifting the ship up and out of the clearing.

They were heading for the Factory.

* * *

Andrew had seen the whole thing from the top of an enormous pine tree. As soon as the airship had passed, he scurried down the tree and landed on the ground without a sound. Then he slowly walked back to the campsite.

The fire was still burning, and he used his Grace to move the fire closer together, then snuff it out by drawing the heat from it. He was only able to do this with smaller fires.

Slowly, he walked into the clearing and picked up James' hat. He thought about picking up his glasses too, but they were broken beyond repair.

Quietly, he left the clearing and moved through the forest, back to where the others were waiting. When he reached them, he sadly handed James' hat to Ben, who simply stared at it, fighting down the urge to cry.

"We should keep moving," said Christopher sadly.

For the first time, Andrew knew that he was genuinely sad, seeing as he had just lost another family member to the Gracebeasts.

Still, they walked on.

* * *

The ride in the airship seemed like it took hours, when it only took about 20 minutes. They flew over the forest, but they also flew over the desolation of the Dead City – a haunting, gray and shadowy landscape strewn with litter and pieces of buildings.

Finally, they reached the Factory. As soon as they landed, several more drones appeared and dragged James and Caleb out and through the doors, into the enormous dark building. They went through a maze of hallways before they finally came to a gigantic poorly lit room. Dozens of drones were lined up against the wall, waiting in case of trouble.

James gasped when he saw the Baron, and Caleb whimpered a bit, knowing what was ahead.

They were dragged all the way up and dropped in front of the Baron's throne. Caleb instantly dropped to his knees, too weak to stand, and James went down with him, keeping him from hitting his head on the cement floor. He wrapped his arms around him to keep him from falling over, and for protection against the Gracebeasts.

The Baron slowly stood up, looking menacing in the dim light.

"Well it's about time," he said, looking over at Felix, who was standing off to the side. He then turned and signaled to the drone standing behind James. The drone nodded, pulled out a small device with a small needle at the end, and stuck the needle in James' arm. James yelped in surprise, and the drone quickly brought the device to the Baron.

"This is nothing to worry about," said the Baron casually. "Just a quick blood test so I can know who you are and what your Grace is."

James went pale. He wasn't worried about himself, but he _was_ worried about Caleb, who was still keeping his eyes closed.

"Let's see here," said the Baron. "James Flint, age 52, technokinesis... very impressive Grace." Then he stopped and squinted at the screen a bit. "Hold on. I know you," he said. "About five years ago, a group of my Gracebeasts killed your son. I remember because we took a blood sample from his dead body, and he had your last name and Grace."

James sat completely motionless. His vision went a bit red as raw anger flooded his body, and the only thing that stopped him from doing something stupid was Caleb's grip on his arm.

The Baron smiled evilly before looking at the drone standing behind Caleb. This one pulled out another one of the small devices and jabbed Caleb with it. Caleb didn't even flinch.

When the Baron looked at the device, James bit his lip, but instead of instantly ordering the drones to kill Caleb, he simply looked confused.

The device seemed to be malfunctioning, and the small screen kept blinking on and off. Instead of words, the screen only displayed shaky binary that kept changing. He had never seen one of the devices malfunction this bad since...

Suddenly, the Baron looked up and stared at Caleb with what almost looked like fear. He looked at several of the drones and quickly signaled to them. They sprung into action and grabbed Caleb and James. They dragged James off to the side of the room, and they sat Caleb upright so that he was on his knees. He was still barely strong enough to stay upright, and he didn't have the strength to lift his head. He still hadn't opened his eyes.

The Baron walked right up to him. Without waiting, he picked him up by the scruff of his neck, holding him by his hood, holding him at eye level, meaning that Caleb' feet were about two feet off the ground.

Caleb opened his eyes and glared at the Baron, his purple eye seeming to glow in the low light.

The Baron jumped back in shock and dropped Caleb to the floor, where he crumpled in a heap. James broke free from the drones and ran back over to him, carefully helping him up.

The Baron backed up a bit. "Well what do we have here? A Seer? The last Seer alive, probably."

Across the room, Felix's eyes went wide, and he muttered a soft "Oh shit." Even some of the drones took a small step away from the kid. They all knew how dangerous Seers were.

Suddenly, the Baron looked over at Felix. "Didn't you say that Warren laced the bullets with Pitch?"

Felix nodded, and then his eyes went wide when he realized what the Baron was really asking.

"That's what I thought," said the Baron, looking down at Caleb, who was pale and shivering from his fever. He looked up at the drones still standing behind the two captured Gracelings. "Take them to the infirmary. Felix, go with them."

The drones nodded and hoisted James and Caleb to their feet, and Felix joined them. They started to drag them towards another hallway branching away from the room when the doors burst open, and two drones entered, dragging a struggling teenage girl with them.

"What's going on?" demanded the Baron as the drones dragged the girl towards him.

"We discovered this female snooping around one of our base camps," said one of the drones in its emotionless voice. "She appears to be a spy."

"Well what are you waiting for?" asked the Baron angrily. "Scan her."

A drone jabbed the girl with one of the devices and brought it to the Baron. While this was happening, Felix, James, and Caleb were still on the far side of the room.

"We've gotta watch this," said Felix with an evil smile. "It'll be interesting."

The Baron looked at the device, which had finished its reading. He read out what it said. "Alex Riker, age 18... Ungraced."

The girl – a short and slightly pudgy girl with badly-cut short brown hair – looked up, fear in her large brown eyes.

"You're a spy," said the Baron, "so you _must_ know what we do to the Ungraced bastards who try and bother us..."

The girl didn't say anything, but she continued to struggle. However, there was a drone on each arm, holding her arms away from her body. Their grips on her arms were so tight that their metal fingers had cut into her wrists, which were now bruised and bloody.

The Baron slowly walked forward. As he did, his mechanical right hand rotated; the hand disappeared and was replaced with a large knife. The girl – Alex – continued to struggle.

"No!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "Please! Stay away! Just let me go, I swear I won't tell any-"

The Baron cut her off by plunging the knife into her chest. The girl froze with her mouth wide open and her eyes wide. Blood started to drip out around the knife.

Then something happened. The Baron's arm started to glow bright green, right where the metal and flesh merged. Suddenly, bursts of green light shot through his arm and the knife, going right through the girl's chest. The green light surrounded her, and she started screaming and convulsing. The drones holding her jumped back to avoid the lethal light. The Baron's expression didn't change when the green light shot through her eyes and mouth, and the screams turned into a horrible choking noise.

A moment later, the green light receded back into the Baron's arm, and he pulled the knife out of the girl's chest. The body fell to the ground. Or... the _remainder_ of the body fell to the ground. The girl's eyes had exploded and were now just a mess of bloody tissue. Her lower jaw had also been ripped off, and was only connected to her head by a few pieces of charred skin. Most of her hair had burnt off, along with her fingers and ears. Her nose was gone, and the blood and muscles and bone were spilling out through the gaping hole. The rest of her body was covered in third degree burns, and the skin was peeling away in some places, revealing cauterized muscles and tissues, which were still twitching as her fried nervous system died. Her blood was boiling.

Back on the far side of the room, James and Caleb stared with wide eyes and open mouths.

"So that's what his Grace is..." muttered Caleb under his breath. James looked like he was trying not to vomit.

"Good times," said Felix. He then turned and signaled for the drones to continue out of the main room. "Alright, let's go."

The drones dragged the two traumatized Gracelings down the hallway. Or, more accurately, they shoved James along and practically carried Caleb. The kid was losing strength fast. James could even see black streaks appearing on his hands, around his wrists.

Finally, they made it to the infirmary, and Felix opened the door and led the way inside. A skinny girl with long red hair, a doctor's coat, and brown and green eyes – Ginger – came up to them.

"I can handle it from here," she said to Felix and the drones. The drones nodded, turned, and left, but Felix walked down the hallway of curtains and disappeared inside one of the little rooms.

Ginger turned back to James and Caleb, but before she could say anything, Caleb cried out in pain and dropped to the ground.

"Duncan! Frankie! Get over here!" shouted Ginger as she and James picked Caleb up off the ground and carried him to a nearby bed.

Two more people appeared, one about Ginger's height with black and silver hair, and an incredibly tall skinny one with bright orange hair. They were both wearing doctor's coats.

The three Healers swarmed around the bed, and James took a step back to let them work, not knowing what to do.

"What's wrong with him?" asked the tall skinny one.

"Let's see... infected bullet wound, pneumonia, Pitch poisoning... Just keep his fever down," said Ginger. "Frankie, go help the other one."

James didn't know what she meant until the Healer with the black and silver hair broke away from the group and came towards James.

"This way," he said, leading James towards another bed across the room. James didn't want to leave Caleb, but he didn't really have a choice. He limped over and sat down on the bed that the Healer was standing next to.

"Is he gonna be okay?" asked James, straining to see the young Seer. He did manage to catch a glimpse of him, and he saw that he was deathly pale, and the black streaks were extending up the side of his neck.

Before Frankie could answer, Ginger started shouting, "Dammit Duncan, keep his damn fever down!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" exclaimed Duncan, who was looking slightly pale.

Frankie quickly pulled a curtain over to block James' view. "They can handle it," he said.

"What happened to him?" asked James nervously.

"The Pitch reached his heart and started killing him," said Frankie, adjusting the glasses that James hadn't noticed he was wearing. "But don't worry, Ginger and Duncan can handle it. They'll also get rid of the infection, the fever, and the pneumonia."

James nodded a bit.

"Okay," said Frankie, "so where did you get shot?"

James pointed to his knee, and Frankie gently placed his fingertips against it.

"Okay, let's see..." he muttered. "The bone was completely shattered, but it looks like someone partially healed it. Did you have a Healer with you?"

James nodded. "He's a wound Healer," he said.

"We could use one of them here," said Frankie as he started to heal the bone. "Rogue killed our last one, because he went crazy."

"Rogue?"

Frankie nodded. "That's his last name. I don't even know his first name, and I've been stuck here for twenty years. If you have a useful Grace, they put you to work. Rogue is the one responsible for torturing the prisoners that might have valuable information."

James started to get worried again.

"There we go," said Frankie, standing back. "I healed all the fractures, but your friend who healed you earlier didn't set the bone right, so I can't heal it completely. It'll probably give you a bit of pain, but you'll be able to walk on it now. If you wanted, I could break your knee again and heal the bone in the right position."

"I... I'm good," said James.

Frankie nodded. "I'll go check on your friend." With that, he left.

James pulled his legs up and sat curled up in a ball. He was worried about Caleb, and he was also worried about what the Gracebeasts were going to do to them. Would they imprison them or torture them? He had no way of knowing, and in a way, that was what made it worse.

After a few minutes, Frankie came back.

"Your friend is fine," he said. "They got rid of the infection, the poison, and the pneumonia. He still has that bullet wound, but it should start healing on its own."

James nodded and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Caleb wasn't going to die of an infection or a sickness or poison.

"... I'm sorry," Frankie suddenly said.

"What?" asked James, looking up at him.

"I'm sorry you and your friend got captured," he said.

James shrugged dejectedly. "We didn't really have much of a choice. It was either get captured or let him die."

Frankie nodded. "What's his name?"

"Caleb," he said. "Caleb McHale."

Frankie nodded. "And what's your name?"

"James," he said.

"Then it's nice to meet you, James," said Frankie with a smile.

Suddenly, they heard the door to the infirmary open. Frankie left to see who it was, but as soon as he turned to go, he ran into someone – a tall pale man with slick black hair and bright red and bright green eyes. The man pushed past Frankie and walked right up to James. Then he grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him out. Frankie looked like he was about to protest, but a glare from the man stopped him.

Just before James was dragged through the door, he managed to catch a glimpse of Caleb. The boy was barely conscious, but his eyes were open, and he was talking to Ginger, who was sitting in a chair next to his bed and dabbing at his forehead with a wet cloth. Then the door closed and James was dragged down the hallway.

The man dragged him down multiple hallways before coming to a staircase that led down. James was dragged down towards a door at the bottom, where two red-eyed Gracebeasts stood on guard, both of them holding guns. They opened the door when the man and James approached, and James was dragged through the door.

The room behind the door was large, and it contained several large wooden benches. There were large piles of scrap metal sitting in the corners of the room. Gathered around the tables were about twenty people of various ages and genders. They all glanced up when James and the man entered, but they quickly went back to working on whatever they were doing.

The man shoved James into the room and handed him a large, rolled up piece of paper. James unrolled it a bit and saw that it was a blueprint for what looked like a large gun.

"Build it," said the man. Then he turned and left. The door closed behind him.

James simply stood there, not knowing what to do. That was when he heard someone walk up to him. He turned and saw a tall man with dark red hair. The man's eyes were silver and blue.

"Hi," he said, smiling to reveal a chipped front tooth. "I know you're probably confused, but it'll be okay." He spoke with a heavy Scottish accent.

"W-what is this?" asked James, looking around the room.

"This," said the Scottish man, "is where the technokinetics make weapons for the Gracebeasts. We don't have a choice. If we don't make what they give us in the blueprints, they shoot us in the head."

The man led James to an empty space on the table on the far side of the room. "Here's your workspace," he said. "Sorry that you have to work so soon, but it'll keep you somewhat sane." He then turned and went back to working on his own project, which was to the right of James' spot.

James didn't move for a minute, but he finally unrolled the blueprint. The design was incredibly complicated, but he saw ways he could make it. He gathered a few spare parts from the pile in the corner of the room and brought them back to his desk. He slowly got to work, putting together small pieces of scrap metal. After a moment, however, a small voice sounded from right next to him.

"It's not actually that bad down here," said the voice. "Once you get used to it, of course."

James jumped a bit, startled by the voice. He looked to his left and saw a small boy looking up at him. The boy had black hair, pale skin, and glasses. He was wearing a light gray turtleneck, jeans, and boots. His right eye was green, and his left eye was the same silver as James' and the Scottish man. James noticed in the back of his mind that most of the technokinetics in the room had a silver eye.

"Sorry," said the boy, realizing he had startled James. "My name's Simon," he said, holding out his hand. James felt like electrocuting every single Gracebeast within the vicinity for locking him in a room with a kid who had the same name and a somewhat similar appearance – dark hair and green and silver eyes – to his dead son. Fate was so cruel sometimes. However, instead of saying any of this, James simply smiled a bit and shook the boy's outstretched hand.

"My name's James," he said. That was when he noticed how small Simon was. The boy's head and shoulders only just came above the desk.

"Simon, how old are you?" asked James.

Simon shrugged. "I think I'm ten, but I might have turned eleven already. I don't know when my birthday is."

This shocked James. "You don't... how long have you been here?"

Simon shrugged again and started fiddling with a spare piece of metal, making it bend into the shape of a dragonfly with his Grace. "About five or six years... I think..."

James felt his jaw drop. "Five or six years... What about your family?"

Simon shook his head, still fiddling with his gadget. "They're all dead..." he said quietly. That was when he looked up at James. "What about your family?"

James slowly shook his head and looked down at his workbench. "They're dead too... Everyone except my cousin, but he doesn't really count."

"How did they die?" asked Simon, his child-like curiosity showing.

"He asks everyone," the Scottish man whispered to him. James glanced at him, and he nodded, gesturing for him to tell the boy.

James let out a small sigh, turning back to Simon. "Well... they died a couple years ago. I had a wife and two kids, and... they're gone."

"How?" asked Simon again.

"What do you mean?" asked James.

"I wanna know if they died the same way my family died," he said quietly. "The Gracebeasts burned my house down and killed my parents because they were Ungraced..."

James looked down at his workbench again. "Well... we were attacked by a mob of Gracebeasts... They shot my wife and daughter because they were Ungraced... and they tried to kidnap me and my son, but we tried to run... and one of them grabbed my boy and..." He stopped and picked up a wire, violently twisting it around his finger to try and distract himself. "And they slit his throat right in front of me..."

"I'm sorry..." said Simon, reaching over and gently patting James' hand.

James nodded. He was still worried and upset, but at least it wasn't so bad.

It could have been worse.

* * *

Caleb woke up later that day, pleasantly surprised that he didn't immediately have to struggle for breath. The second he opened his eyes, Ginger was leaning over him.

"Welcome back to the world of the living," she said.

Caleb smiled a bit, mostly at the fact that she had just used Ben's favorite thing to say when someone wakes up.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, feeling his forehead to discover that his fever was gone.

"Kinda crappy," he said. "My side hurts..."

"I'm sure it does," she said. "You've still got a bullet wound to think about. We bandaged it up, though, so it shouldn't get infected."

"Thanks..." muttered Caleb sleepily.

Ginger smiled and let him be.

Caleb slept for half an hour before he was woken up by the sound of shouting.

"No! Absolutely not!" That was Ginger.

"Do I really look like I care?" asked a cool, venomous voice.

Caleb opened his eyes, even though he didn't need to. His Grace told him that the voice belonged to Rogue, the warden of the prisoners and the infamous torturer. He was standing with his arms crossed, facing off against a very pissed off Ginger. Even though he was a foot taller than her, she still looked like a formidable force.

"If you think you can come in here and take _my_ patients before they're even strong enough to walk-"

"I'm working under the Baron's orders, and he told me specifically-"

"Yes, I know what he told you, but that doesn't mean I can't argue."

"If you want to complain, you can take it up with the Baron. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a job to do."

Rogue pushed past Ginger and walked right up to Caleb. He then grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him to his feet. Caleb gasped in pain as the action stretched the wound on his side.

Rogue dragged Caleb through the door with Ginger throwing a rainbow of colorful words at him. Then the door closed and Caleb was dragged down a different hallway. The hallways and dark passages seemed almost endless. Finally, they came to a long corridor that ended in a staircase leading down. Rogue dragged Caleb down the short flight of stairs, and they reached a thick metal door with an impressive old-fashioned lock. Rogue unlocked the door, and at that moment, Caleb instinctively grabbed his throat before forgetting that he had given his beloved key to Jen.

The door opened to reveal another long dark corridor with a small barred window at the end. Through the window, Caleb could see the sky, and even a few stars...

Rogue dragged him into the corridor, and that was when he noticed that the walls were lined with barred doors, behind which were rooms. Prison cells. Each cell was holding about five people, as far as Caleb could see. Most of the people in the cells had shrunk as far back as possible to get away from Rogue.

When they reached the end of the corridor, Rogue unlocked the cell door on the right and unceremoniously tossed Caleb inside. He landed on the cold hard ground with a soft _thud_, grimacing as the impact sent shards of pain through his bullet wound.

"Don't get too comfortable," snarled Rogue. "You won't be in there for long..."

He turned around just in time to see Rogue close and lock the door before leaving. A moment later, the entire corridor went dark as Rogue shut the door leading out, blocking out all the light.

Caleb looked around. The cell he was in was smaller than the others, and it was empty.

He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, and he looked down to see that blood had started to stain the left side of his jacket. He leaned against the wall, already exhausted an in pain. Looking over on the other side of the cell, though, he saw that there was a single bed against the wall. However, he knew he didn't have the strength to make it.

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and let himself rest against the cold wall. That was when he felt something in his pocket. He opened his eyes and reached into his pocket, feeling something small, smooth, and somewhat round. He pulled it out and saw that it was a tiny glass vial filled with a slightly blue liquid. Anti-venom. He vaguely remembered Ben giving it to him the night before. He had a feeling that it would come in handy, so he slipped it back into his pocket.

Then he felt something else. He pulled the object out and gasped. He was holding a tiny jar that used to contain ink, but now contained a tiny bolt of lightning from the Skysparks he had found. He carefully opened the lid and tilted the jar to the side. The tiny bolt of lightning fell into his bare hand and sat on his palm, peacefully sending off small sparks.

He stared at the little bolt of lightning, pretending that it was a star, and that when he let it go, it would float back up into the sky, and maybe take him with it. Then he would be free of this awful place and free of being hunted for the rest of his short life. With all his heart, he wanted to escape.

Then something happened. The little lightning bolt started to glow brighter, casting an eerie blue glow around the small cell. Then the lightning bolt sank into his skin and disappeared, leaving his hand glowing blue for a moment before it returned to normal and the light disappeared.

Caleb had no idea what had happened – only that the little lightning bolt was now inside of him. Suddenly, he found the energy and strength to move again. He got to his knees and made his way over to the bed on the other side of the room.

Somehow, he managed to crawl over to it and pull himself up. The second he was on the bed, he collapsed, gasping for breath and curling around the wound. The energy the lightning bolt had given him had disappeared, along with the idea of escaping from the prison. He was more miserable than ever.

That was when he heard a voice. "Sorry about that guy," said the voice. It was coming from the cell right across the hall. "He's always been a jackass." Caleb assumed the voice was referring to Rogue.

Caleb lifted his head and looked through the bars. Sitting against the bars was a thin boy with spiky black hair, pale skin, and electric blue and yellow eyes.

"Yeah, I kinda noticed..." Caleb mumbled tiredly.

The boy smiled a bit. "My name's Electro," he said. "Or at least... that's what they call me."

"I'm Caleb," he said.

The boy – Electro – smiled a bit. "Nice to meet you," he said.

Caleb nodded and put his head back down, too tired to try and carry on a conversation. However, he heard the boy's voice again.

"Hey, are you okay? I can't see you very well, but I know you don't look so good."

Caleb sighed tiredly. "Yeah... I'm fine..." he muttered. "I'm just... y'know... dying."

"From what?"

"Bullet wound."

"Ugh, I hate bullet," muttered Electro.

"Who doesn't?" asked Caleb. That was when he noticed that there were several other people in the cell with Electro. "Who else is in there with you?"

Electro looked over his shoulder. "Those two are Martin and Jacob," he said, pointing at two small boys who were sleeping back to back on one of the beds. "Speed and stealth Graces, and both of them are deaf." He gestured to an albino girl with pale skin and long white hair sleeping curled up on one of the beds. "That's Alice, but we call her Icy because of her Grace. And-"

"Who the hell are you talking to?" came a female voice from behind Electro. A somewhat tall girl with long, dark red hair stepped out of the shadows and came and sat down next to Electro. Caleb saw that one eye was black, and the other was bright, Gracebeast red.

"New guy," said Electro, pointing at Caleb.

"Hi," said Caleb with a small awkward wave.

"This is Danielle," said Electro. Danielle nodded and gave a small wave.

"Why do you have a red eye?" asked Caleb, getting right to the core of the question.

"Because I have a fighting Grace," said Danielle. "They tried to brainwash me, but it didn't work. All it did was turn my eye red. It used to be blue, I swear!"

Caleb's eyes went wide as he remembered the stories he had heard about people being kidnapped and brainwashed.

"Can anybody be brainwashed?" he asked.

Danielle shook her head. "No, only people with fighting or strength Graces."

Caleb went pale, but before he could say anything, the door at the end of the hallway opened again, and Rogue entered. He walked up to Caleb's cell and swung the door open. He grabbed Caleb's arm and pulled him to his feet, dragging him through the door. Caleb grimaced in pain as the wound on his side started bleeding again. But right at that moment, he looked at Electro and Danielle; both of them looked sad. A second later, his vision went black, and for a split second, he saw a large, poisonous snake. Without another thought, he dropped the tiny vial of anti-venom, and it rolled across the stone floor and landed right next to Electro, who quickly took it before Rogue could notice.

Rogue dragged Caleb down the hallway, but when he went through the door, he stopped. He pulled what looked like a small burlap sack out of his pocket and pulled it over Caleb's head, blocking his vision. He then dragged Caleb through the dark cold hallways once more.

Caleb had no idea where they were going; all he could do was stumble along and try not to fall over. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Rogue stopped. Caleb heard a door opening, and then Rogue dragged him down some stairs. When they reached the bottom, he heard another door opening, and the air suddenly got a lot colder. He was then thrown to the floor, and Rogue pulled the bag off of his head, allowing him to see where he was.

He was sitting on the floor of a small room. The walls were made of metal, and the ground was cold hard stone. There was only one door with a wall-length mirror next to it. Caleb knew that it was a two-way mirror, and he could only wonder who was watching from the other side. He also noticed a small security camera in the corner of the roof, right above the door. There was a little red light on, showing that it was recording.

Slowly, Caleb glared up at Rogue, who was standing in the center of the room, emotionless as ever. Then, after a moment, he finally spoke.

"Welcome to Hell..."

And then, instead of beating him within an inch of his life, he turned and left.

Caleb knew he had gone to get the Baron. And he knew exactly what the Baron was going to say to him.

Tiredly, Caleb sighed, but the action invoked a sharp stab of pain from his bullet wound. He didn't worry about it too much, though, because he knew soon he would be suffering from more than just a simple bullet wound.

Suddenly, the door burst open and the Baron walked in, having to duck to get through the door. The second he closed the door behind him, he grabbed Caleb by the front of his jacket and lifted him in the air so that they were eye level.

"How are you alive?" demanded the Baron. "All of the Seers were killed off years ago."

"Well I know that," said Caleb, unable to keep a sarcastic tone out of his voice. "About 26 years ago, people started killing Seers because they thought their Grace was unholy, and that people shouldn't be able to see the future. That's why the Pitch was developed..." Suddenly, Caleb got a distant look in his eyes. "It was... almost exactly 26 years ago..."

Snarling, the Baron roughly flung Caleb the ground. "I already know that," he growled. "Now tell me what you know..."

Caleb took a deep breath before slowly sitting up on his knees and looking up at the Baron. His eyes were glazed and his pupils had shrunk to pinpricks. He had a slightly deranged look on his face, not helped by the small lopsided smile that had suddenly appeared.

"I know exactly why I'm alive," said Caleb quietly, his voice ragged. "I also know why you're missing most of your limbs. I know why you stabbed out your own eye. I know why you're afraid of fire. I know why you _changed your Grace_ and used that technology to experiment on people. And I know _exactly_ who you are..."

The Baron narrowed his eye and took a step back, standing with his mechanical arms crossed. "Then tell me."

Slowly, a wicked grin spread across Caleb's face. He glanced at the two-way mirror. "I know Rogue isn't out there. That's because you knew I would end up talking." Caleb then looked up at the Baron. "Good to know you've still got a bit of your old Grace left."

The Baron narrowed his eye even further, and Caleb saw him start to clench his metal fist. But he didn't say anything. Caleb took that as a sign he could continue.

"It'll never leave you, your old Grace," said Caleb. "And you know it. There will always be a bit of your Seeing Grace left until the day you die... That's why you stabbed your own eye out. It was your purple eye, the one that identifies you as a Seer. But no... you were paranoid. I mean, I would be paranoid too if I had to watch my brother burn to death at the hand of the Ungraced. But you wanted to take it further. You wanted to get rid of your Grace entirely...

"You and your brother... you were both looking for the Professor... the Scientist... You got surrounded, you lost your leg, your brother got captured and burnt at the stake. Was that when you decided to stab out your eye?"

The Baron hadn't moved yet. Caleb took that moment to glance at the camera in the corner of the ceiling. The light was on. It was still recording

"You obviously found the Scientist, otherwise neither of us would be here right now," Caleb continued. "I don't know what you threatened him with, but he gave you a new Grace. And you stole almost everything."

"Almost...?"

Caleb slowly nodded. "You missed the most important thing. Something so small, but so important... But that doesn't matter now, seeing as the thing you missed is in the hands of the one who will ultimately kill you, and that's a conversation for later. What matters at the moment for the purposes of this conversation is that you managed to save your sister..."

"What does my sister have to do with any of this?" growled the Baron. "She wasn't even a Seer!"

"No, she wasn't," Caleb agreed. "She was Ungraced. But she carried Seer DNA, and that's the important part of this little story. The Sight Grace can only be inherited. That's why every single Seer in the world and their families were killed... All of them except you and your sister."

By now, the Baron's face had gone from red with anger to dead pale with fear.

Caleb saw his fear, and it was only the Baron's fear that gave him the courage to say what he said next.

"Your real name is Brian McHale. You're my uncle."

Without any warning, the Baron kicked Caleb in the chest, throwing him backwards and breaking several of his ribs. Caleb lay curled up on the ground for a minute before slowly raising his head and looking into the camera.

"Run. Now..." he gasped out.

The Baron didn't play any attention to what Caleb was saying. Instead, he took a menacing step forwards.

"If you ever repeat what you just said, I'll make you wish you'd never been born..." said the Baron, his dangerous voice low and ominous.

Slowly, Caleb smiled, blood dripping out of his mouth. "I don't need... to... repeat it... The c-camera was on... Someone has the tape... If you kill me... they'll play the tape... and everyone will know who you r-really are..."

The Baron took a deep breath and closed his eye, clearly hanging on to his last shred of self control. "I assume whoever has the tape has already run off?"

Caleb nodded.

Slowly, the Baron nodded to himself. "Very well..." Then he turned and started to walk out the door.

"I know you still have visions!" Caleb suddenly exclaimed.

The Baron stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"I think you should be worried about your own visions at the moment," he said carefully. "You clearly have no control over them. They mess with your health, those visions. Not just your mental health, but your physical health as well. Your visions take away your appetite and your ability to sleep. In fact, you're so skinny I could snap you in half like a twig..."

The Baron paused for a moment before finishing his thought.

"Your visions are killing you."

"Yeah, I know," said Caleb quietly, realizing that everything the Baron had just said was true. "But you do still have visions, don't you?"

"I do," he finally said after a long pause. "And I've recently had a vision you might find... interesting."

Slowly, the Baron turned around before speaking again.

"I see two brothers," he said. "Not in blood, but in bond. One of them will die in the arms of the other."

And then he turned and left.

Still curled up on the floor, Caleb's eyes widened and he began to panic. Two brothers? His mind instantly went to Ben and Andrew.

And then he could see it.

Been sitting on the floor, covered in blood, tears streaming down his face. And Andrew lying lifeless in Ben's arms, his dark brown hair now black and slick with blood, his normally tan skin dead pale, a half-healed knife wound on his chest...

Before Caleb could say anything, the Baron slammed the door shut and locked it.

* * *

As soon as the Baron was out of the room, he sent a message for Rogue to come. Then he went to the monitor.

Caleb had been right. The tape that normally stored any recorded Cold Room footage was gone. He had absolutely no idea who could have been watching. Anyone in the prison could have it...

A few minutes later, Rogue appeared in the doorway.

"Did you get any information, sir?" Rogue asked.

The Baron didn't respond, and that was how Rogue got his answer.

Slowly, the Baron turned to Rogue. He only said two words, but his message was loud and clear.

"Break him."

And then he left.

* * *

_A/N: I swear, I got so excited writing this chapter that I almost threw up! EXPOSITION! YOU LEARN NEW THINGS! And meet a few characters. Haha, just leave it to me and Elliq to torture James with a kid that reminds him of his son. Also, that Ungraced girl that got fried? Yeah, she's based off this bitch in my Spanish class who I cannot for the life of me stand, and if this ever happened to her in real life, I would dance on her grave. No joke. And now I'm really hoping that she finds this and gets either really pissed or really scared, because I'm not the only one that hates her guts. Mwa. Ha. Ha. Elliq didn't have anything to do with that part, that was ALL ME!_

_Danielle belongs to Glampyra of FanFiction and deviantART and is based off of her character 10, and Icy and Electro belong to Twilight-Na of deviantART. Graceling belongs to Kristen Cashore, and 9 belongs to Shane Acker. Everything else belongs to ME! QILLE! _

_Hope you enjoyed this freakishly long chapter!_


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